Changing Tides Chapter 5 Part 1 Revised ( again it seems)
Soooo I'm offically done editing all chapter i know there are still mistakes around there but meh give me a break i'm not making this into a book yet i'm sharing a story. SOOOOOO now I'm off to go finish up chapter 5 part 2 that will be posted when i get up in the morning when i finish editing it. It will be posted here when i am done and prolly there when i update all the files.
Changing Tides : Prologue
Changing Tides: Chapter 1
Changing Tides: Chapter 2
Changing Tides: Chapter 3
Changing Tides: Chapter 4
Changing Tides
Chapter 5: Chasing Ghosts Part 1
Aikido walked from the tower, his head held high as he began going over what he would need for the mission. It wasn’t supposed to be a long mission, maybe just a few days so he knew that he didn’t need to pack at all. He could survive in the wilderness for a bit while he tracked the rogue ninja.
“Iruka-sensei.” He glanced in the direction of the voice wondering who would call him by that name. No one in this village called him that and he knew that deep down inside that it wasn’t his true name... Or was it? Quickly scanning the area, he saw a blonde child laughing innocently as he ran down the street.
Watching the apparition leave his field of vision, Aikido quickly collected himself and began to chase after it. He knew that it wasn’t real, but something deep inside him wanted him to go chase it.
Turning the corner he wasn’t surprised to find that the kid was gone.
“Hey sensei,” A voice yelled from above. “You’re so slow you can’t even keep up with me.” He looked up, following the sound and saw the kid on top of a nearby roof. He couldn’t make out the face, but he knew it was the same person. Leaping onto the roof he began the chase again and watched as the image disappeared into a small alleyway back on the ground.
Jumping down, Aikido began his search for that kid again and saw him standing at the entrance of the alleyway, staring out into the street. Running to the blonde, Aikido was about an inch away from grabbing him, when the kid took off again. He resumed the chase and dashed after the child into the street. As he ran weaving through the crowd he noticed that more and more people were appearing the closer he ran to the center of the village.
Aikido slowly made his way through the crowd, gently pushing them out of his way so that he could follow this entity to the end. Some people started looking at him funny, while others just chose to ignore his actions.
The civilians knew that there were times when a ninja could start seeing things that weren’t really there. To people not accustomed to this sort of thing, they thought of those people as insane. To those that were accustomed to this, they knew it was just a struggle with some inner conflict and they offered a quick prayer to that person and hoped they would overcome it in the end, and go back to helping the village to the best of their abilities.
Finally making it to the center of the village, the child stopped and scratched the back of his head, laughing like only a child who didn’t know the hardships of the world could. His body began to slowly fade away as he began to turn around.
“I guess we’ll have to play this game again some other time, sensei,” the child said sadly. Aikido’s own dark eyes locked with eyes as blue as the sky before the young boy disappeared into nothingness.
Aikido stood there frozen in that spot for an uncertain amount of time. Those eyes, he knew he saw them before, he knew he saw those marks across a face which gave the kid a whiskered appearance. Grabbing longs strands of dark hair, Aikido closed his eyes as a wave of nausea hit him heavily.
Taking a deep breath and opening his eyes he looked around the village and saw a completely different place. A village which didn’t have the coat of thick mist to protect it. From his position he could see the edge of a thick forest outside. It was nothing like the ones outside this village with its snow covered trees. The town he was seeing wasn’t surrounded by mountains and didn’t have waterfalls that fed into streams that ran throughout the streets. Even the people were changing, slowly taking on different appearances. A feeling of familiarity over took him as he saw those people whom he knew he saw before.
Closing his eyes, Aikido tried to let all the scenes playing in his mind clear. Slowly opening his dark eyes again he saw that it only got worse. Both villages seemed to have merged and he couldn’t differentiate what was locked in his memories from what was actually in front of him. Staggering to a wall he placed a hand upon the hard surface before pressing his head against the wall a few inches from his hand.
Again, another memory of a place that wasn’t here came unbidden to the surface of his mind and he closed his eyes tightly as a severe pain passed through his entire being. Clenching his jaws tightly it was all he could do not to yell as the pain hit him again. It felt as if his head wanted to split open. He could feel the restraints he put on his chakra while in the village, to protect people from the more dangerous aspects of his blood limit, begin to waver.
“Aikido-san,” a voice called from his side and he turned around to see an older lady with grocery bags staring at him with a look of concern. He could tell by the looks of her eyes she was one of those rare people who cared about everyone even if she didn’t know them.
“What is it?” the nin said, trying to keep his voice as even as he possibly could with the searing pain burning in his head.
“Are you okay?” she said, concern lacing her voice.
“I’m perfectly fine. Why do you ask? ” he would have glared at the woman had he not be in pain from his episode a few seconds earlier.
The woman looked to her left where her daughter was clinging to her pants leg. It took a moment for Aikido to realize it was his young friend, Yari.
“I heard you scream and got my mom,” the younger girl said softly as she looked at him with bright blue eyes. They seemed similar to the ones he saw earlier, but these didn’t stir the same feelings that the other ones did. “She’s the best medical nin in the village,” the girl said proudly.
The blonde haired woman’s cheeks turn a little red. The woman looked back to him before saying, “It’s not true, you know how kids are now a days,” the red still didn’t leave her cheeks as she said this. Clearing her throat she asked softly, “Would you like me to see if anything is wrong, Aikido-san?”
Knowing that nothing was really wrong with him he felt the ‘no’ on the tip of his tongue. ‘What could it hurt,’ he thought. Before he could go back on it he nodded slightly.
The woman put her bags on the floor before she took two long strides to him. Slowly she rubbed her palms together for a quick second before a soft green glow enveloped them. Moving her hands to his head, he felt the ice cold chill of her chakra pulsed into his body. Aikido closed his eyes for a second and fought down the urge to impale the woman who was trying to help him.
“I can’t seem to find anything wrong,” she said after a minute. Letting his eyes slow open he gave her a wary look. He wasn’t surprised to find that there was nothing physically wrong with him. He probably would have been more shocked had she found something.
“Well thanks for the help,” he said as politely as he could before turning to Yari and giving her a small smile. “I told you I was fine,” he chuckled lightly before squatting down so he was at eye level with the girl.
“I know but, still,” Yari said as she turned away and blushed. The man smiled affectionately at her before reaching down and gently ruffling her hair.
“How about when I come back from my mission we go enjoy the festival together?” he asked softly. The young girl looked at him shocked before nodding esthetically.
“I don’t know, Yari, what do you think your father will say?” The mother said with a thoughtful crossing her face.
“But mom I go with the family every year, just this once, can I go?” the blue eyed girl said, turning on her best kicked puppy look to her mom.
“How about I think about it later is that alright with you, Aikido-san?” The young man stood up, brushing dirt off his pants before giving her a small barely noticeable grin and nodded.
“When will you be back?” she asked now.
“More than likely tonight, at the latest tomorrow morning.” To any other person going on a tracking mission they would have said a week or more. Aikido knew that it would not take him that long, considering she was supposed to be in the vicinity of the village.
“All right, Aikido-san, have a nice day” The woman said, bowing before turning around and walking back the way she came from. Yari quickly hugged him as hard as her 10 year old arms could before she ran after her mother. Aikido’s eyes glazed over as he watched them go. He felt an intense sadness take over him briefly before he suppressed it.
Heading towards the gate the browned haired man began to think of the quickest way to get to where he had to go before, he felt it. It was a chakra that he knew he felt before and was not one of those constants in this village. He could swear on this life he knew this chakra signature and as he tried to let his mind wrap around the concept he began to feel another one. These were both chakra signatures he knew but, why was he feeling them now when he was leaving the village.
“Watch out!” someone yelled and Aikido’s instincts kicked in and he jumped back feeling his blood limit stir within himself. Where he stood a paper lantern had fallen to the floor. A gray-haired woman ran to where he was and began apologizing profusely. He tuned her out before he looked at the remnants of the broken lantern and around the village.
‘The festival,’ he thought to himself as he continued his walk to the city gates. As he approached them he noticed there was more then two dozen tourists stepping through the gate and cursed luck that so many people came at once. Trying to make his way through the crowd he brushed against a dark haired man and felt a spark of familiarity at the touch. He would have analyzed it more had he not been going on a mission.
Finally getting out of the sea of people, Aikido gathered a little bit of his chakra before running. ‘Why can’t I shake this feeling?’ was his thought as he switched from the ground to the trees. Had he looked back before starting his trip he would have noticed the single black eye that seemed to be searching for him.
Iwillnotdiehereuntilthetideshavechanged
‘Today is going to be one of those days,’ was the first thing that went through Kakashi’s mind as he woke before the first rays of dawns light began to creep it’s way into the hotel room. Opening his eye, the disguised nin rolled over so that he was facing his teammates.
Sasuke was under the sheets and even in his sleep he seemed to be brooding about something. Looking to his youngest teammate he saw that the blonde was sprawled across the bed in a position that didn’t look entirely comfortable. The red blankets were kicked on the floor without a care and the pillows from his bed were in random places across the room.
Kakashi shook his head as he crept out of bed as silently as he could, making his way to the bathroom to change his clothes and shower quickly before they decided to wake up. Closing the bathroom door as silently, he took his sweet time taking all the hot water from the shower glad that his disguise was water proof.
Exiting the bathroom, he wasn’t surprised to see that that the older of his two teammates was up and sitting on the bed staring at the bathroom door as he came out.
“When did you get up?” He asked as he made his way over to his travel bag and tossed his dirty clothes in there. It wouldn’t look good for a “tourist” to not have a change of clean clothes.
“When you turned on the shower,” the other said simply as he rose from the bed and began to walk to the bathroom. The scarred man turned to look at the blonde still in the bed and began to wonder when he would get up before he realized that Naruto would sleep through an earthquake if he wanted to.
Sighing he walked over to the bed and poked the blonde who just mumbled something incoherently. The man poked the blonde again who mumbled something about ramen demons that he was going to vanquish with his chopsticks. Shaking the blonde once, he wasn’t surprised to see the younger man roll into a corner of the bed trying to escape the shaking Kakashi was giving him. Growing tired of the game, Kakashi took the bottom of the mattress and lifted it up watching with glee as the blonde rolled onto the floor.
“What the fuck was that for?” Naruto yelled as scrambled to get to his feet glaring at the temporary black haired man.
Kakashi smiled at the blonde teen, “I just thought it would be a good idea to wake you up.” He grinned under the black shirt which concealed his face the same way his mask usually did.
“Couldn’t you have just shaken me or poked me to get me up?” he asked while rubbing his backside.
“I tried that already, you just didn’t wake up, oh vanquisher of ramen demons” the Copy Nin smirked at the blushing blonde who was at a loss for words.
“What about Ramen Demons?” The young Uchiha asked, walking into the room with just a towel draped around his waist, pale skin gleaming with the water droplets that he didn’t bother wiping way after his shower.
“Nothing!” The blue eyed boy yelled as he blushed even more. Kakashi couldn’t help noticing the way the other boy’s eyes lingered on Sasuke for more then a few seconds. The black haired boy was too busy looking through his bag for something a “tourist” would wear to notice his admirer admiring him.
“You know staring is a bad habit.” The former leader of team seven said a little loudly as he made his way to his own bag making sure he had everything packed and ready to go.
“What?” Sasuke said, turning around to look at the person who spoke.
Naruto, breaking out of his trance of watching Sasuke, quickly made his way to the bathroom, grabbing a towel from his own bag as he made haste. A minute after the blonde entered the bathroom they both heard a loud yell.
“This water is freezing! Why is it so damn cold! Who the hell took all the hot water!” Was heard before the sounds of cursing were drowned out by his teammate’s laughter.
The port town of Ishitori wasn’t a big place and it only took the three ninjas 5 minutes to get to the dock where the ship was supposed to be taking them all across the ocean to water country.
“How long is this trip going to be?” Naruto asked, bouncing his way to the ship where dozens of people seemed to be saying goodbye or giving kisses to those who were in line to get on the ship.
“Should be an hour or two at the most.” Kakashi said as he went through his bag, fishing out their tickets and passports. Handing them over the three all walked onto the ship with no one giving any of them a second glace as they all.
“We’ll be leaving shortly.” One of the members of the ship’s crew yelled as loudly as he could over the noise of the people.
Slowly the ship began to set sail and they were on their way to another port town from where a guide would take them to the village hidden in the mist.
“Why do you cover your face?” a small child said to the tall black haired man. Kakashi startled looked down and saw a kid no older then six look at him with eyes full of curiosity.
“Because. . .” He responded as nonchalantly as he could, leaving that one word open to interpretation as he began to walk away from the child and look around the vessel.
“Is it because you’re a Ninja?” the kid asked the taller man.
“Nope, I’m not a ninja,” Kakashi lied in another bored tone as he began to walk faster.
“But you wear a mask, I thought only ninjas wear masks,” the kid said, running to keep up with the older man’s stride.
Kakashi sighed as he ran a hand thru his dark hair. He just knew that it was going to be one of those days when he woke up in the morning.
Finally docking, everyone got off the ship. 4 Mist ninja’s were waiting as everyone disembarked.
“Greetings everyone, we’ll be your escorts. We know that there are more then a few ninja among the likes of you.” The three Konoha shinobi stiffed and felt the rise of chakra from several others around them.
“We’re willing to turn a blind eye to you as long as you don’t plan on attacking the village and think you’ll succeed in your mission. I’m Kin.” Kin pointed to the people next to him giving off a name as he pointed to each one. “We’ll be taking you to our village, make sure you stay within our sights at all times, navigating through this mist is tricky if you don’t know where you’re going and I know no one would like to get lost forever. Now let’s get going, it will only take us 20 minutes to reach the village if we start walking now.”
Kin turned away from the group and began walking east. To the left of him was a woman who Kakashi didn’t even bother learning the name of. He maneuvered himself into the center of Sasuke and Naruto.
“Keep your eyes peeled to see if any of these ninja take one of their guests and doesn’t return with them.” He spoke in such a soft voice that Sasuke and Naruto could barley understand what he was saying.
In 20 minutes exactly they all seemed to stop as Kin turned around to address them all again. “Welcome to Kiriga and please enjoy your stay for the duration of the Winter Solstice Festival.”
The mist in front of them cleared and two humongous doors seemed to appear out of nowhere. The doors opened and everyone seemed to rush in at one time. Kakashi was shoved violently on his left but that wasn’t what startled him. It was that chakra signature and a shock that shook him to the very core. He turned around and tried to find the owner but as he was pushed further in the gates, it seemed a futile effort.
Iwillnotdiehereuntilthetideshavechanged
Letting go of the feeling of the familiar chakra that was now miles away, Aikido continued with his path to the last known location of the rogue nin.
Aikido hated hunting missions, but he always took them because he had a natural gift when it came to hunting people down. He knew he was one of the best people for the job and that if one of the hunter ninja or ANBU were to go after this traitor it would take them a lot longer than need be. He was fast, quick and knew he had more than the required power to bring back proof the ninja’s demise.
Allowing a small smirk to grace his face he sprinted faster through the trees. He loved this feeling so much, the feeling of a hunt and the thrill of being a nin.
Extending his senses, he let his mind wander on the nearby chakra signatures. Frowning a little he was upset when he felt nothing but the typical forest life around. As he got closer and closer to the location that was documented, he began to wonder if it was just a fake report, as one of the elders suggest just getting some of the military power outside of the city. Then again he wouldn’t be surprise it’s not like a missing nin would stay in one location for very long.
Scouting the area by the lake he wasn’t surprised to find it deserted. Not even the faintest sign that someone had been here at all. Aikido allowed the rage to build up within him. He did not like to waste his time chasing things that couldn’t be found.
The lake churned and stirred as Aikido’s rage began to boil, showing physically what he was feeling inside. He knew that he was using up a lot of excess chakra and that some nearby enemies of the mist would more then likely come to see what the disturbance was.
Sighing softly, Aikido allowed his excess energy to disperse. Hearing the water churn a bit more he had to glance around thinking that his blood limit might be going out of control.
Looking into the body of water he saw a maelstrom and knew that it wasn’t his ability at all. A lot of the chakra was centered at the point directly in the middle and below water level. A sphere formed in the center where the vortex was before, the water concentrated on that one point circling in a counter clockwise direction. Then all at once all the water froze before it seemed to shatter sending shards of ice in every single direction.
Aikido let his reflexes take over and with several quick hand seals he formed a water wall that deflected all the shards of ice without the tiniest bit of strain on him or his chakra. Letting the wall of water disappear in front of him, he looked back to where the mysterious sphere was and noticed it was gone and nothing was wrong with the lake?
“Was it just my imagination?” He asked himself as he took another sweep of the area with his senses. He didn’t sense anything but out the corner of his eye he swore he saw a shadow move. He felt a rush of air and knew something was coming his way.
When whatever it was came about an inch from harming him in anyway before his trench coat burst into water and created a giant arc of ice around protecting him from the kunai and shrunken that would have otherwise scored a few lethal hits on him.
As quickly as it made that shield it disappeared back into water and melted into the ground leaving Aikido there in just his fishnet shirt and with a question of who was attacking him.
He allowed a smirk to cross his face at the thought of how much fun this fight was going to be fun and a chance for him to use more of his abilities than he used on his uncle.
Another attack came, this time he couldn’t see a body but he did see the weapon that was aiming to kill. Making a quick signal, the water that was now in the ground surged up creating spikes as it went in the direction he knew that attack came from. He wasn’t surprised when his attack didn’t do anything at all.
Another attack he spotted a split second before it almost cut off his leg and he sent another wave of spikes in that direction. He again wasn’t surprised when it hit nothing. It seemed that who ever the puppeteer was, they weren’t in the same spot where they attacked from and moved fairly quickly.
Growing bored with the game, Aikido got mad and started to make hand signs for one of the justus’s he hated using just because of the amount of chakra it consumed, but he knew that the best way to catch a moving target was to attack everywhere at once.
“Water Burst,” he said almost inaudibly to the wind before a giant jet of water flew up out of the lake. It began to drench the entire area but that wasn’t what Aikido wanted, he wanted it there just for a bit longer so that he could use this second jutsu which worked better when there was rain.
“Ice Storm,” he said and the droplets of water seemed to hover in air for a few seconds before turning into the jagged shards of hail and began fall, cutting everywhere that the ice touched. He was glad when he heard a very loud curse from the person that he was supposed to be hunting down. Feeling a lot of his chakra leave him he dashed to where he heard the sound from letting the jutsu fade as he approached his target.
Looking at the woman he saw her nursing her arm which seemed to have had a piece of ice piercing an area right next to her elbow.
Looking at her he could see her distaste as she stood up and cast a quick healing jutsu on herself.
“So you’re the one they sent after me, ey, boy?” The woman said to him as she flexed her arm, checking for more injuries.
“Misato Kisata, I assume.” Aikido said in an emotionless voice.
“The one and only,” she gave him a quick smile throwing a few strands of gray hair over her shoulder. Crouching down she sprinted towards him, hand making a fist as she threw a punch at him.
Aikido easily dodged the punch but missed the kick she aimed at his chest. Getting the wind knocked out of him, he saw 3 of her and shook his head trying to clear the images out of his mind. Thinking that there was only one there he dodged the first punch but got hit 2 more times by the other two images of her and realized she must have made clones before hand.
Clenching his teeth Aikido swore he wouldn’t make that mistake again. Watching two of the woman go low he did a back flip over the double attack throwing a few kunai above him knowing that she would most likely try to attack from there. He heard a gasp and water fell onto his face telling him that at least one of her clones was now gone.
When he landed back on his feet he had to jump back several more feet as several more attacks were thrown at him. Hearing a faint whisper he called back the water that was following him closely and made another shield deflecting all the projectiles.
“My, my, I haven’t seen anything like that since Katara was back in the academy,” she taunted as she threw more and more projectiles at the shield Aikido put up around himself. Making a quick hand sign Aikido dropped his shield and teleported to the closest image of the woman. Grabbing her wrist he snapped it before feeling the water come up around his wrist, forming a blade as he slash her across the neck. The water clone burst as it was thrown into a nearby tree.
“Is that anyway to treat a lady, even for a clone that’s ungentlemanly,” her voice was heard everywhere at once and Aikido felt his pulse quicken as the rage made him boil. It seemed that no matter how many times he killed a clone she would just make a new one each and every time and not only one but several of them as each one died.
Staring to get fed up Aikido made several quick hand signals and said nothing as he just stood there waiting for the right moment to use his trump card. Before he had a chance to, though, a dozen Misato clones came and grabbed onto every part of his body preventing him from moving in anyway.
“Awww, is this the best Kiriga has to offer now a days?” The dozens of Misato’s said simultaneously. It was enough to echo across Aikido’s consciousness.
“It’s such a pity. I remember when Kiriga was actually a formidable force to be reckoned with.” They all said again in that same echoing voice, causing Aikido to struggle more against the clones that held him and want to get away all the more. “Then again I suppose injecting that blood limit into every single person that graduated from the academy might not have been the best idea.” This time only one voice spoke and Aikido watched as another Misato came from behind a tree in front Aikido. The smile that was plastered on her face made him wanted to rip out her throat and mutilate her face beyond recognition.
“The secrets of Kiriga, did they even tell you them?” she smiled and started walking closer to Aikido, reaching into her back pocket and pulling out a curved dagger. “I don’t believe they have. So I’ll do you a favor and spare you from all their trickery. Kirga will fall!” She said finishing the last part off with a scream before plunging the dagger into Aikido’s chest.
Aikido didn’t even give a grunt as the dagger entered his heart and his head fell down to his chest. Misato gave him a coy smile knowing that her work was done. This was one less mist ninja she would have to kill when she went into the village. She didn’t want to kill as much as come back for the solstice, but she knew that her name was among the top three in Kiriga’s bingo book. Dispersing her water clones. She watched as the man fell to the ground in a heap without her clones supporting him. Moving to him she brushed a stray hair from his face before reaching down and grabbing the hilt of the dagger.
As she watched the dagger slowly leave his body she was surprised to find no trace of blood and before she had time to process this one of his arms reached up and plunged the weapon back into his body. Aikido looked into her eyes and gave her a cold smirk which had her shaking.
Thrashing a bit she began to try and dislodged his hold on her arm but was unable to as her wrist sunk into his chest and then froze there. He moved to stand to his full height and slowly he moved towards her, turning into water when he was an inch from her before materializing behind her and breaking both her arms simultaneously.
Misato let out a pained scream as both her arm were broken. Aikido wrapped his arms around her waist before his body again turned to liquid freezing from her shoulder blades down to her hips. She now just noticed how cold this man was when compared with a human normal body heat.
“You’re not the only one who can make clones,” was said from above and she had just enough room to look up into the canopy of a nearby tree and see Aikido sitting on the branch watching her.
“But if that’s you who is this,” she hissed trying not to show how much pain she was truly in.
“As I said it’s a clone, just a very special one.” He said as he dropped down from his current spot in the tree. The clone looked to his owner and nodded. Aikido started forming hand seals and the air began to compress around Misato, making it harder for her breathe. She looked down and noticed that there was a ring of water around her that was rising slowly and spinning faster as it got bigger.
“What are you planning to do?” she said her voice becoming ragged from the lack of air getting into her lungs. She looked at the water justsu again fearfully, watching as it rose slowly. She tried to thrash but the frozen clone attached to her made it impossible to move even an inch.
“Shredding Whirlpool,” Aikido said as he finished his hand signs. The water immediately intensified and flew quickly up Misato’s and his clone’s body. He heard her scream as the water formed a tornado consuming them both and spinning at a speed so high he knew he could never keep up with it. The next thing he did was use part of his ability to make several bits of ice form within the spinning tornado.
Making a quick hand motion, the tornado stopped and began to fade out as it slowed down. The only thing left was a case of ice that contained Misato’s head. Beneath that lay a pool of blood from where her body was torn apart by his jutsu.
Walking over to the now harmless threat, Aikido picked it up before placing her head it in black bag so that no one else could see what he was bringing back to the village.
“One less thing to worry about,” Aikido said as he began to walk into the direction of the village. The water crawling after him before wrapping around his body into the familiar shape of the trench coat very few people saw him without.
Adjusting the head so that it was in a more comfortable position for him to race through the trees, Aikido let his mind wonder back. Now that he no longer had a mission he could find that chakra he thought was familiar and see why it was.
End of Chapter 5 Part 1
Chapter 5 Part 2
Changing Tides : Prologue
Changing Tides: Chapter 1
Changing Tides: Chapter 2
Changing Tides: Chapter 3
Changing Tides: Chapter 4
Changing Tides
Chapter 5: Chasing Ghosts Part 1
Aikido walked from the tower, his head held high as he began going over what he would need for the mission. It wasn’t supposed to be a long mission, maybe just a few days so he knew that he didn’t need to pack at all. He could survive in the wilderness for a bit while he tracked the rogue ninja.
“Iruka-sensei.” He glanced in the direction of the voice wondering who would call him by that name. No one in this village called him that and he knew that deep down inside that it wasn’t his true name... Or was it? Quickly scanning the area, he saw a blonde child laughing innocently as he ran down the street.
Watching the apparition leave his field of vision, Aikido quickly collected himself and began to chase after it. He knew that it wasn’t real, but something deep inside him wanted him to go chase it.
Turning the corner he wasn’t surprised to find that the kid was gone.
“Hey sensei,” A voice yelled from above. “You’re so slow you can’t even keep up with me.” He looked up, following the sound and saw the kid on top of a nearby roof. He couldn’t make out the face, but he knew it was the same person. Leaping onto the roof he began the chase again and watched as the image disappeared into a small alleyway back on the ground.
Jumping down, Aikido began his search for that kid again and saw him standing at the entrance of the alleyway, staring out into the street. Running to the blonde, Aikido was about an inch away from grabbing him, when the kid took off again. He resumed the chase and dashed after the child into the street. As he ran weaving through the crowd he noticed that more and more people were appearing the closer he ran to the center of the village.
Aikido slowly made his way through the crowd, gently pushing them out of his way so that he could follow this entity to the end. Some people started looking at him funny, while others just chose to ignore his actions.
The civilians knew that there were times when a ninja could start seeing things that weren’t really there. To people not accustomed to this sort of thing, they thought of those people as insane. To those that were accustomed to this, they knew it was just a struggle with some inner conflict and they offered a quick prayer to that person and hoped they would overcome it in the end, and go back to helping the village to the best of their abilities.
Finally making it to the center of the village, the child stopped and scratched the back of his head, laughing like only a child who didn’t know the hardships of the world could. His body began to slowly fade away as he began to turn around.
“I guess we’ll have to play this game again some other time, sensei,” the child said sadly. Aikido’s own dark eyes locked with eyes as blue as the sky before the young boy disappeared into nothingness.
Aikido stood there frozen in that spot for an uncertain amount of time. Those eyes, he knew he saw them before, he knew he saw those marks across a face which gave the kid a whiskered appearance. Grabbing longs strands of dark hair, Aikido closed his eyes as a wave of nausea hit him heavily.
Taking a deep breath and opening his eyes he looked around the village and saw a completely different place. A village which didn’t have the coat of thick mist to protect it. From his position he could see the edge of a thick forest outside. It was nothing like the ones outside this village with its snow covered trees. The town he was seeing wasn’t surrounded by mountains and didn’t have waterfalls that fed into streams that ran throughout the streets. Even the people were changing, slowly taking on different appearances. A feeling of familiarity over took him as he saw those people whom he knew he saw before.
Closing his eyes, Aikido tried to let all the scenes playing in his mind clear. Slowly opening his dark eyes again he saw that it only got worse. Both villages seemed to have merged and he couldn’t differentiate what was locked in his memories from what was actually in front of him. Staggering to a wall he placed a hand upon the hard surface before pressing his head against the wall a few inches from his hand.
Again, another memory of a place that wasn’t here came unbidden to the surface of his mind and he closed his eyes tightly as a severe pain passed through his entire being. Clenching his jaws tightly it was all he could do not to yell as the pain hit him again. It felt as if his head wanted to split open. He could feel the restraints he put on his chakra while in the village, to protect people from the more dangerous aspects of his blood limit, begin to waver.
“Aikido-san,” a voice called from his side and he turned around to see an older lady with grocery bags staring at him with a look of concern. He could tell by the looks of her eyes she was one of those rare people who cared about everyone even if she didn’t know them.
“What is it?” the nin said, trying to keep his voice as even as he possibly could with the searing pain burning in his head.
“Are you okay?” she said, concern lacing her voice.
“I’m perfectly fine. Why do you ask? ” he would have glared at the woman had he not be in pain from his episode a few seconds earlier.
The woman looked to her left where her daughter was clinging to her pants leg. It took a moment for Aikido to realize it was his young friend, Yari.
“I heard you scream and got my mom,” the younger girl said softly as she looked at him with bright blue eyes. They seemed similar to the ones he saw earlier, but these didn’t stir the same feelings that the other ones did. “She’s the best medical nin in the village,” the girl said proudly.
The blonde haired woman’s cheeks turn a little red. The woman looked back to him before saying, “It’s not true, you know how kids are now a days,” the red still didn’t leave her cheeks as she said this. Clearing her throat she asked softly, “Would you like me to see if anything is wrong, Aikido-san?”
Knowing that nothing was really wrong with him he felt the ‘no’ on the tip of his tongue. ‘What could it hurt,’ he thought. Before he could go back on it he nodded slightly.
The woman put her bags on the floor before she took two long strides to him. Slowly she rubbed her palms together for a quick second before a soft green glow enveloped them. Moving her hands to his head, he felt the ice cold chill of her chakra pulsed into his body. Aikido closed his eyes for a second and fought down the urge to impale the woman who was trying to help him.
“I can’t seem to find anything wrong,” she said after a minute. Letting his eyes slow open he gave her a wary look. He wasn’t surprised to find that there was nothing physically wrong with him. He probably would have been more shocked had she found something.
“Well thanks for the help,” he said as politely as he could before turning to Yari and giving her a small smile. “I told you I was fine,” he chuckled lightly before squatting down so he was at eye level with the girl.
“I know but, still,” Yari said as she turned away and blushed. The man smiled affectionately at her before reaching down and gently ruffling her hair.
“How about when I come back from my mission we go enjoy the festival together?” he asked softly. The young girl looked at him shocked before nodding esthetically.
“I don’t know, Yari, what do you think your father will say?” The mother said with a thoughtful crossing her face.
“But mom I go with the family every year, just this once, can I go?” the blue eyed girl said, turning on her best kicked puppy look to her mom.
“How about I think about it later is that alright with you, Aikido-san?” The young man stood up, brushing dirt off his pants before giving her a small barely noticeable grin and nodded.
“When will you be back?” she asked now.
“More than likely tonight, at the latest tomorrow morning.” To any other person going on a tracking mission they would have said a week or more. Aikido knew that it would not take him that long, considering she was supposed to be in the vicinity of the village.
“All right, Aikido-san, have a nice day” The woman said, bowing before turning around and walking back the way she came from. Yari quickly hugged him as hard as her 10 year old arms could before she ran after her mother. Aikido’s eyes glazed over as he watched them go. He felt an intense sadness take over him briefly before he suppressed it.
Heading towards the gate the browned haired man began to think of the quickest way to get to where he had to go before, he felt it. It was a chakra that he knew he felt before and was not one of those constants in this village. He could swear on this life he knew this chakra signature and as he tried to let his mind wrap around the concept he began to feel another one. These were both chakra signatures he knew but, why was he feeling them now when he was leaving the village.
“Watch out!” someone yelled and Aikido’s instincts kicked in and he jumped back feeling his blood limit stir within himself. Where he stood a paper lantern had fallen to the floor. A gray-haired woman ran to where he was and began apologizing profusely. He tuned her out before he looked at the remnants of the broken lantern and around the village.
‘The festival,’ he thought to himself as he continued his walk to the city gates. As he approached them he noticed there was more then two dozen tourists stepping through the gate and cursed luck that so many people came at once. Trying to make his way through the crowd he brushed against a dark haired man and felt a spark of familiarity at the touch. He would have analyzed it more had he not been going on a mission.
Finally getting out of the sea of people, Aikido gathered a little bit of his chakra before running. ‘Why can’t I shake this feeling?’ was his thought as he switched from the ground to the trees. Had he looked back before starting his trip he would have noticed the single black eye that seemed to be searching for him.
Iwillnotdiehereuntilthetideshavechanged
‘Today is going to be one of those days,’ was the first thing that went through Kakashi’s mind as he woke before the first rays of dawns light began to creep it’s way into the hotel room. Opening his eye, the disguised nin rolled over so that he was facing his teammates.
Sasuke was under the sheets and even in his sleep he seemed to be brooding about something. Looking to his youngest teammate he saw that the blonde was sprawled across the bed in a position that didn’t look entirely comfortable. The red blankets were kicked on the floor without a care and the pillows from his bed were in random places across the room.
Kakashi shook his head as he crept out of bed as silently as he could, making his way to the bathroom to change his clothes and shower quickly before they decided to wake up. Closing the bathroom door as silently, he took his sweet time taking all the hot water from the shower glad that his disguise was water proof.
Exiting the bathroom, he wasn’t surprised to see that that the older of his two teammates was up and sitting on the bed staring at the bathroom door as he came out.
“When did you get up?” He asked as he made his way over to his travel bag and tossed his dirty clothes in there. It wouldn’t look good for a “tourist” to not have a change of clean clothes.
“When you turned on the shower,” the other said simply as he rose from the bed and began to walk to the bathroom. The scarred man turned to look at the blonde still in the bed and began to wonder when he would get up before he realized that Naruto would sleep through an earthquake if he wanted to.
Sighing he walked over to the bed and poked the blonde who just mumbled something incoherently. The man poked the blonde again who mumbled something about ramen demons that he was going to vanquish with his chopsticks. Shaking the blonde once, he wasn’t surprised to see the younger man roll into a corner of the bed trying to escape the shaking Kakashi was giving him. Growing tired of the game, Kakashi took the bottom of the mattress and lifted it up watching with glee as the blonde rolled onto the floor.
“What the fuck was that for?” Naruto yelled as scrambled to get to his feet glaring at the temporary black haired man.
Kakashi smiled at the blonde teen, “I just thought it would be a good idea to wake you up.” He grinned under the black shirt which concealed his face the same way his mask usually did.
“Couldn’t you have just shaken me or poked me to get me up?” he asked while rubbing his backside.
“I tried that already, you just didn’t wake up, oh vanquisher of ramen demons” the Copy Nin smirked at the blushing blonde who was at a loss for words.
“What about Ramen Demons?” The young Uchiha asked, walking into the room with just a towel draped around his waist, pale skin gleaming with the water droplets that he didn’t bother wiping way after his shower.
“Nothing!” The blue eyed boy yelled as he blushed even more. Kakashi couldn’t help noticing the way the other boy’s eyes lingered on Sasuke for more then a few seconds. The black haired boy was too busy looking through his bag for something a “tourist” would wear to notice his admirer admiring him.
“You know staring is a bad habit.” The former leader of team seven said a little loudly as he made his way to his own bag making sure he had everything packed and ready to go.
“What?” Sasuke said, turning around to look at the person who spoke.
Naruto, breaking out of his trance of watching Sasuke, quickly made his way to the bathroom, grabbing a towel from his own bag as he made haste. A minute after the blonde entered the bathroom they both heard a loud yell.
“This water is freezing! Why is it so damn cold! Who the hell took all the hot water!” Was heard before the sounds of cursing were drowned out by his teammate’s laughter.
The port town of Ishitori wasn’t a big place and it only took the three ninjas 5 minutes to get to the dock where the ship was supposed to be taking them all across the ocean to water country.
“How long is this trip going to be?” Naruto asked, bouncing his way to the ship where dozens of people seemed to be saying goodbye or giving kisses to those who were in line to get on the ship.
“Should be an hour or two at the most.” Kakashi said as he went through his bag, fishing out their tickets and passports. Handing them over the three all walked onto the ship with no one giving any of them a second glace as they all.
“We’ll be leaving shortly.” One of the members of the ship’s crew yelled as loudly as he could over the noise of the people.
Slowly the ship began to set sail and they were on their way to another port town from where a guide would take them to the village hidden in the mist.
“Why do you cover your face?” a small child said to the tall black haired man. Kakashi startled looked down and saw a kid no older then six look at him with eyes full of curiosity.
“Because. . .” He responded as nonchalantly as he could, leaving that one word open to interpretation as he began to walk away from the child and look around the vessel.
“Is it because you’re a Ninja?” the kid asked the taller man.
“Nope, I’m not a ninja,” Kakashi lied in another bored tone as he began to walk faster.
“But you wear a mask, I thought only ninjas wear masks,” the kid said, running to keep up with the older man’s stride.
Kakashi sighed as he ran a hand thru his dark hair. He just knew that it was going to be one of those days when he woke up in the morning.
Finally docking, everyone got off the ship. 4 Mist ninja’s were waiting as everyone disembarked.
“Greetings everyone, we’ll be your escorts. We know that there are more then a few ninja among the likes of you.” The three Konoha shinobi stiffed and felt the rise of chakra from several others around them.
“We’re willing to turn a blind eye to you as long as you don’t plan on attacking the village and think you’ll succeed in your mission. I’m Kin.” Kin pointed to the people next to him giving off a name as he pointed to each one. “We’ll be taking you to our village, make sure you stay within our sights at all times, navigating through this mist is tricky if you don’t know where you’re going and I know no one would like to get lost forever. Now let’s get going, it will only take us 20 minutes to reach the village if we start walking now.”
Kin turned away from the group and began walking east. To the left of him was a woman who Kakashi didn’t even bother learning the name of. He maneuvered himself into the center of Sasuke and Naruto.
“Keep your eyes peeled to see if any of these ninja take one of their guests and doesn’t return with them.” He spoke in such a soft voice that Sasuke and Naruto could barley understand what he was saying.
In 20 minutes exactly they all seemed to stop as Kin turned around to address them all again. “Welcome to Kiriga and please enjoy your stay for the duration of the Winter Solstice Festival.”
The mist in front of them cleared and two humongous doors seemed to appear out of nowhere. The doors opened and everyone seemed to rush in at one time. Kakashi was shoved violently on his left but that wasn’t what startled him. It was that chakra signature and a shock that shook him to the very core. He turned around and tried to find the owner but as he was pushed further in the gates, it seemed a futile effort.
Iwillnotdiehereuntilthetideshavechanged
Letting go of the feeling of the familiar chakra that was now miles away, Aikido continued with his path to the last known location of the rogue nin.
Aikido hated hunting missions, but he always took them because he had a natural gift when it came to hunting people down. He knew he was one of the best people for the job and that if one of the hunter ninja or ANBU were to go after this traitor it would take them a lot longer than need be. He was fast, quick and knew he had more than the required power to bring back proof the ninja’s demise.
Allowing a small smirk to grace his face he sprinted faster through the trees. He loved this feeling so much, the feeling of a hunt and the thrill of being a nin.
Extending his senses, he let his mind wander on the nearby chakra signatures. Frowning a little he was upset when he felt nothing but the typical forest life around. As he got closer and closer to the location that was documented, he began to wonder if it was just a fake report, as one of the elders suggest just getting some of the military power outside of the city. Then again he wouldn’t be surprise it’s not like a missing nin would stay in one location for very long.
Scouting the area by the lake he wasn’t surprised to find it deserted. Not even the faintest sign that someone had been here at all. Aikido allowed the rage to build up within him. He did not like to waste his time chasing things that couldn’t be found.
The lake churned and stirred as Aikido’s rage began to boil, showing physically what he was feeling inside. He knew that he was using up a lot of excess chakra and that some nearby enemies of the mist would more then likely come to see what the disturbance was.
Sighing softly, Aikido allowed his excess energy to disperse. Hearing the water churn a bit more he had to glance around thinking that his blood limit might be going out of control.
Looking into the body of water he saw a maelstrom and knew that it wasn’t his ability at all. A lot of the chakra was centered at the point directly in the middle and below water level. A sphere formed in the center where the vortex was before, the water concentrated on that one point circling in a counter clockwise direction. Then all at once all the water froze before it seemed to shatter sending shards of ice in every single direction.
Aikido let his reflexes take over and with several quick hand seals he formed a water wall that deflected all the shards of ice without the tiniest bit of strain on him or his chakra. Letting the wall of water disappear in front of him, he looked back to where the mysterious sphere was and noticed it was gone and nothing was wrong with the lake?
“Was it just my imagination?” He asked himself as he took another sweep of the area with his senses. He didn’t sense anything but out the corner of his eye he swore he saw a shadow move. He felt a rush of air and knew something was coming his way.
When whatever it was came about an inch from harming him in anyway before his trench coat burst into water and created a giant arc of ice around protecting him from the kunai and shrunken that would have otherwise scored a few lethal hits on him.
As quickly as it made that shield it disappeared back into water and melted into the ground leaving Aikido there in just his fishnet shirt and with a question of who was attacking him.
He allowed a smirk to cross his face at the thought of how much fun this fight was going to be fun and a chance for him to use more of his abilities than he used on his uncle.
Another attack came, this time he couldn’t see a body but he did see the weapon that was aiming to kill. Making a quick signal, the water that was now in the ground surged up creating spikes as it went in the direction he knew that attack came from. He wasn’t surprised when his attack didn’t do anything at all.
Another attack he spotted a split second before it almost cut off his leg and he sent another wave of spikes in that direction. He again wasn’t surprised when it hit nothing. It seemed that who ever the puppeteer was, they weren’t in the same spot where they attacked from and moved fairly quickly.
Growing bored with the game, Aikido got mad and started to make hand signs for one of the justus’s he hated using just because of the amount of chakra it consumed, but he knew that the best way to catch a moving target was to attack everywhere at once.
“Water Burst,” he said almost inaudibly to the wind before a giant jet of water flew up out of the lake. It began to drench the entire area but that wasn’t what Aikido wanted, he wanted it there just for a bit longer so that he could use this second jutsu which worked better when there was rain.
“Ice Storm,” he said and the droplets of water seemed to hover in air for a few seconds before turning into the jagged shards of hail and began fall, cutting everywhere that the ice touched. He was glad when he heard a very loud curse from the person that he was supposed to be hunting down. Feeling a lot of his chakra leave him he dashed to where he heard the sound from letting the jutsu fade as he approached his target.
Looking at the woman he saw her nursing her arm which seemed to have had a piece of ice piercing an area right next to her elbow.
Looking at her he could see her distaste as she stood up and cast a quick healing jutsu on herself.
“So you’re the one they sent after me, ey, boy?” The woman said to him as she flexed her arm, checking for more injuries.
“Misato Kisata, I assume.” Aikido said in an emotionless voice.
“The one and only,” she gave him a quick smile throwing a few strands of gray hair over her shoulder. Crouching down she sprinted towards him, hand making a fist as she threw a punch at him.
Aikido easily dodged the punch but missed the kick she aimed at his chest. Getting the wind knocked out of him, he saw 3 of her and shook his head trying to clear the images out of his mind. Thinking that there was only one there he dodged the first punch but got hit 2 more times by the other two images of her and realized she must have made clones before hand.
Clenching his teeth Aikido swore he wouldn’t make that mistake again. Watching two of the woman go low he did a back flip over the double attack throwing a few kunai above him knowing that she would most likely try to attack from there. He heard a gasp and water fell onto his face telling him that at least one of her clones was now gone.
When he landed back on his feet he had to jump back several more feet as several more attacks were thrown at him. Hearing a faint whisper he called back the water that was following him closely and made another shield deflecting all the projectiles.
“My, my, I haven’t seen anything like that since Katara was back in the academy,” she taunted as she threw more and more projectiles at the shield Aikido put up around himself. Making a quick hand sign Aikido dropped his shield and teleported to the closest image of the woman. Grabbing her wrist he snapped it before feeling the water come up around his wrist, forming a blade as he slash her across the neck. The water clone burst as it was thrown into a nearby tree.
“Is that anyway to treat a lady, even for a clone that’s ungentlemanly,” her voice was heard everywhere at once and Aikido felt his pulse quicken as the rage made him boil. It seemed that no matter how many times he killed a clone she would just make a new one each and every time and not only one but several of them as each one died.
Staring to get fed up Aikido made several quick hand signals and said nothing as he just stood there waiting for the right moment to use his trump card. Before he had a chance to, though, a dozen Misato clones came and grabbed onto every part of his body preventing him from moving in anyway.
“Awww, is this the best Kiriga has to offer now a days?” The dozens of Misato’s said simultaneously. It was enough to echo across Aikido’s consciousness.
“It’s such a pity. I remember when Kiriga was actually a formidable force to be reckoned with.” They all said again in that same echoing voice, causing Aikido to struggle more against the clones that held him and want to get away all the more. “Then again I suppose injecting that blood limit into every single person that graduated from the academy might not have been the best idea.” This time only one voice spoke and Aikido watched as another Misato came from behind a tree in front Aikido. The smile that was plastered on her face made him wanted to rip out her throat and mutilate her face beyond recognition.
“The secrets of Kiriga, did they even tell you them?” she smiled and started walking closer to Aikido, reaching into her back pocket and pulling out a curved dagger. “I don’t believe they have. So I’ll do you a favor and spare you from all their trickery. Kirga will fall!” She said finishing the last part off with a scream before plunging the dagger into Aikido’s chest.
Aikido didn’t even give a grunt as the dagger entered his heart and his head fell down to his chest. Misato gave him a coy smile knowing that her work was done. This was one less mist ninja she would have to kill when she went into the village. She didn’t want to kill as much as come back for the solstice, but she knew that her name was among the top three in Kiriga’s bingo book. Dispersing her water clones. She watched as the man fell to the ground in a heap without her clones supporting him. Moving to him she brushed a stray hair from his face before reaching down and grabbing the hilt of the dagger.
As she watched the dagger slowly leave his body she was surprised to find no trace of blood and before she had time to process this one of his arms reached up and plunged the weapon back into his body. Aikido looked into her eyes and gave her a cold smirk which had her shaking.
Thrashing a bit she began to try and dislodged his hold on her arm but was unable to as her wrist sunk into his chest and then froze there. He moved to stand to his full height and slowly he moved towards her, turning into water when he was an inch from her before materializing behind her and breaking both her arms simultaneously.
Misato let out a pained scream as both her arm were broken. Aikido wrapped his arms around her waist before his body again turned to liquid freezing from her shoulder blades down to her hips. She now just noticed how cold this man was when compared with a human normal body heat.
“You’re not the only one who can make clones,” was said from above and she had just enough room to look up into the canopy of a nearby tree and see Aikido sitting on the branch watching her.
“But if that’s you who is this,” she hissed trying not to show how much pain she was truly in.
“As I said it’s a clone, just a very special one.” He said as he dropped down from his current spot in the tree. The clone looked to his owner and nodded. Aikido started forming hand seals and the air began to compress around Misato, making it harder for her breathe. She looked down and noticed that there was a ring of water around her that was rising slowly and spinning faster as it got bigger.
“What are you planning to do?” she said her voice becoming ragged from the lack of air getting into her lungs. She looked at the water justsu again fearfully, watching as it rose slowly. She tried to thrash but the frozen clone attached to her made it impossible to move even an inch.
“Shredding Whirlpool,” Aikido said as he finished his hand signs. The water immediately intensified and flew quickly up Misato’s and his clone’s body. He heard her scream as the water formed a tornado consuming them both and spinning at a speed so high he knew he could never keep up with it. The next thing he did was use part of his ability to make several bits of ice form within the spinning tornado.
Making a quick hand motion, the tornado stopped and began to fade out as it slowed down. The only thing left was a case of ice that contained Misato’s head. Beneath that lay a pool of blood from where her body was torn apart by his jutsu.
Walking over to the now harmless threat, Aikido picked it up before placing her head it in black bag so that no one else could see what he was bringing back to the village.
“One less thing to worry about,” Aikido said as he began to walk into the direction of the village. The water crawling after him before wrapping around his body into the familiar shape of the trench coat very few people saw him without.
Adjusting the head so that it was in a more comfortable position for him to race through the trees, Aikido let his mind wonder back. Now that he no longer had a mission he could find that chakra he thought was familiar and see why it was.
End of Chapter 5 Part 1
Chapter 5 Part 2