Heiki could feel that he was in a bad dream.

In this dream, he knew he was younger. He could feel the age of his body had faded away. Only in a dream that unavoidable cause of aging wash away and he knew it was in the past. The images were cloudy like trying to find an object through fogged glass. No, maybe it was that his vision was dwindling and instead of it being 20/20, it was becoming more and more like 20/10 or lower. That was a better analogy Heiki thought. He knew it was the past but It was a feint feeling that was between the present and the past but it was hard to come to an outright conclusion as to whether it was the past and present. He had a feeling that the Hokage, the old Hokage, was still alive and well, still having that leash tugging him over and over again. It was a choking feeling, wanting him to grab his neck to release this pressure. He did so instinctively, not wanting something to be there. When he felt that there was nothing there, he set his hand down. Of course nothing is going to be there.

It’s a dream; a lucid dream for that matter. He is aware of his present situation having some control over it. No, not control. It wasn’t that because if it was, he would try to think of something else, to avoid this memory outright into something better. It was like watching a movie and he had the remote. But this remote was broken with only a play button. No rewind, No fast forward and definitely no button to stop.

The eerie smell of old blood sunk deep in his nostrils. It was a feint odor, hardly noticeable to a veteran of war. War. Yes, this is exactly that. His vision was becoming clearer now. He could see tall structures that he could easily recognize. Factory-like, industrial smells of feint iron and oxidized metals. Soft clashing sounds became louder and louder. Footsteps splashed into a large puddle of water soaking into his pants and shins. His shins? Yes, they were his. He knew the running style, the movement of his head swiveling left and right scanning the area quickly

Should I take this path? No, this path. No, that’ll lead me nowhere.

A explosion vibrated in his ear. It was off to the west of him in a far off location in the village. He couldn’t hear the screams because it was raining. Rain? Yes, it was rain, pouring into the streets off into the large sewers that would drain it back out into the large river they had. How did Heiki know that? It was something about this place that nostalgia was cramming into his memory. It was a village, an industrial size place that held people of war. War? Yes, it is the central place of where all major wars come and never go. It has an echo so loud that shatters the barriers of reality.

There was someone up in front of him. Not someone because there was more than one. He could hear the rapid pitter patter of the boots hitting ground then hitting puddles of water. When they turned, Heiki turned with them. When they jumped up and onto the rooftops, Heiki did the same. He had an obvious notion that this group was running from him. Why? Well, it’s obvious now isn’t it? Getting hounded down by the chaotic flash was one thing, that’s terrifying enough. Knowing that you’re getting chased by the chaotic flash and then having the sudden horrid realization that the person chasing is actually just playing around is on another level.

He’s remembering now. It’s coming back to him. He was once running down the long and wide street that was a particular major artery of Amegakure. He had been given the task of tracking down the remnants of a warhawk group. They were the surviving members that would try to unleash the revolt among the countryside’s causing disarray and much to the disapproval of the Hokage and the Daimyo alike. His task was simply eliminating them. Of course, seeing at his view now he should’ve ended it when he first saw them at the bar but knowing his past self and knowing his ruthless he was, he decided to play with them. If his mission was that simple then why make it simple? The young Heiki wanted to have a bit of fun before leaving this water infested shithole of a village.

“Get away!” He heard one of them shout even among the shower of rain and thunder.

“Run faster man! He’s gaining!” another person shouts.

“Easier said than done” Another person nervously shouted.

His speed increased now as they were now back on the main street. He was getting bored of this cat and mouse stuff. Let’s get into the real action now. The warm up was done and over with; he was through with the foreplaying and he wanted to get deep into this now.

If we were getting chased by a man whose intent was to slaughter you like a steed to the swine, we could imagine that our first thoughts would be simply “I don’t want to die” over and over in a mantra of words that would range from our normal voice swiftly over to a falsetto one. Our thoughts would’ve been in a fuddle of emotions that was fear and panic. That was one of guy’s thoughts exactly. He didn’t want to die. It was as simple as it can be. He was an average shinobi trying to do something good for the world, and perhaps change it for the better. That’s all. Heiki didn’t know how he knew that this guy was feeling this way, he wasn’t reading his mind but rather his eyes. The man had turned his head around. The current Heiki, the older and much wiser Heiki, looked into those eyes and read the thoughts.

Heiki saw himself increase in speed again, causing him to disappear. Whenever he had ran to a point that things almost appear slow, he understood that he was in that ‘speed’ zone. Most shinobi don’t ever get to go into it whether it was because they were not fast enough or rather that their minds couldn’t comprehend the immensity of it. The movement of the people he was chasing had slowed down considerably. Everything in Heiki’s eyes had slowed down but he was the only one that was moving normally. He caught up with them at his sprint. He knew that at that moment, the young Heiki would take out a kunai.

He’ll then slice at the leg of the slowest one.

The young Heiki did exactly what he knew. When his left leg was coming back down, he pierced into the man’s calve, ripping into the skin and deep in the muscle. The red tissue ruptured out of long slit from top to button and the man fell to the ground in that same slow motion. The man’s face crashed into the ground head first bouncing him up. Heiki’s foot slams him further into the ground. The force caused the man’s neck to twist and snap. There was a sharp cracking sound. Heiki pushed forward with that foot and shot at the rest of the group like a ball on a spring.

He woke himself up. His neck jerked up off from the wall and he leaned forward. His hood fell off his head and he was instantly showered by the rain. It shocked him almost immediately, gasping out. He took short, rapid breathes. His heart was pumping maddening, trying to escape out of chest. It was the feeling of anxiety after a bad dream. No, that’s not it. It wasn’t that feeling at all. It was a feeling of excitement. He was getting excited; it was that rush of adrenaline after a good sprint towards an enemy driving his hand into their skulls. It was a pulsating feeling of finding a sweet spot on a woman’s body, softly pressing his lips on her own and making her cringe, shake, moan and yell in pleasure. It was that feeling of getting drenched in blood and rain and letting it slide down his skin. The same feeling he got when he made love to a woman and she was reaching that climax a second, a third time and he hasn’t even gotten to his first yet. It was both dreadful and rewarding at the same time.

He kept his head out in the rain for a little bit longer. That flame of excitement was slowly drowning away with the cold shower of the rain. The mixtures of emotions that came with this excitement died away and he could feel that odd sense of refreshment that one has after go in and out of cold (or hot) water. He leans his head back into the tin rooftop. That sense of where he was came and went as he knew he was in the rain village. The rain was all too familiar for him to forget about for the rain itself was a life in itself. Heiki realized this and knew that no matter where he was or what happen to his physical body, he would know that this place would never change.

“Ok, so you are telling me… that it never stops raining? Like ever?” Ayame’s blue eyes stared out of the store window while pressing her hands, which were completely covered by the oversized brown jacket sleeves, to see the water pouring down as she talked to store owner, her curly bangs dripping water onto the floor as she did so, though the owner didn’t seem to mind. The store owner only nodded as he continued to wipe yet another shot glass with the towel he had in his hand. “Why do you think that we’re the village hidden in the rain, Miss?” Ayame slowly turned to look at him as she answered. “Well, I thought it was just a pun, like I’m from the village hidden in the leaves yet you don’t see leaves just fall from the-” and then, for some odd reason, it was just now donning on her that everywhere she went, there always seemed to be leaves falling from the trees in Konoha, no matter when or where it was. This extremely slow pace in her awareness caused Ayame to slap her forehead as she let out a big sigh and turned around so she could continue to watch the rain.

Not too long before that moment, Ayame was on a journey throughout some of the lesser villages to find a man. So far, this would be the third village that she’s checked for him since she started, being pointed towards various directions before finally catching up to a reliable source that would point her towards Amegakure, though she had to promise the man a kiss on the cheek for some odd reason. On her way over to Ame’s direction, Ayame did notice at some point that a slight drizzle was starting to turn into a harder one, but it wasn’t until she reached passed the gates of Amegakure that it really started pouring rain.

Normally, this wouldn’t be too much of a problem for the kunoichi but the fact that she was wearing a white shirt with no bra on was quite the attraction seeker that caused her to cover her chest the entire time until she finally found a recently closed bar with the owner not being a perverted middle aged man but rather a slightly older and polite one that let her warm up a bit while giving her his brown hoodie that seemed a bit oversized for her but worked. Not only that, but he was also able to relay some information from him about the man she was looking for.

“So where did you say the strange guy with the gold like hair and a hood was again?” Ayame asked just to make sure she was going in the right direction. “Somewhere over to the east side of the village, that’s all I really know.” Looking over to the left direction of the window, which led to the east, Ayame saw nothing but a few people walking with umbrellas and raincoats but she knew he was probably over there somewhere. “Ok, thanks again, Mr. Ryano, I’m heading out now.” After gaining his response to her greeting, Ayame zipped the jacket up, forcing it to go above her chest, pulled the hood on her head before she pushed the glass door open before going off towards the left direction.

Walking throughout the village with her arms crossed right under her chest, Ayame kept every detail of the village within her sights at one point in time or another to avoid potentially missing her target in the form of Heiki Kibou. Given the new circumstances the village has been placed into, Ayame was determined to find this man and hopefully gain some answers on how to fix these circumstances. [color=orange]‘Ugh, what I wouldn’t give to be a sensor type shinobi.’[/color] This type of thinking plagued Ayame’s mind as she quickly started to grow bored from all of this looking and searching, why couldn’t it be as simple as him walking right up to her?

‘Wait, that’s it. All I need to do is attract attention to myself so he can easily find me. Hmm… now I need to do that while still being somewhat discreet but how…’ Ayame would then recall all of the guys, and a few women for what reason, Ayame had no clue of, that were staring hungrily at her once the rain made her shirt so transparent, she might’ve well been walking around topless. Recalling all of that, Ayame’s formerly thoughtful expression changed into a more neutral yet annoyed one as she thought ‘Screw that.’ Right before she made sure there was no one within ten meters of her and curled her sleeve covered right hand into a fist so she could charge a mid-powered punch straight into the ground.

As soon as she did just that, the entire area within ten meters of her was turned into a crater as a loud pounding noise accompanied it, garnering the attention of everyone within her block, gaining a surprised look towards her direction. Ayame simply stood there though, with her hand buried into the ground before eventually taking it out and brushing her fist off, waiting for the attention of the man that she’s been trying to find for the past few days now.

His eyes glanced around. Again, there was no one around him. Around and around his eyes went, wandering from left then to the right then back again. Five, four He stood up. His legs tingled down from nerve ending to nerve ending feeling as though sharp needles had stuck themselves in his muscles. He needed to move his legs less he wanted to stay in that stationary position till he got sick. Three, two. He had grabbed his hood and set it over his head and now his head was immersed with the black hood cover. The rain now patted down coming off the rim of his hood. Some of which dripped into the cloak and onto the collar of his shirt soaking it mildly.

He grabbed onto his core feeling the vibrations of his churning stomach. Going on four days now without food. He hadn’t had the chance to stop in to a rundown restaurant or even hunt for his food. He hadn’t felt it till now. He didn’t feel weak but there was that little tiny voice in his brain that kept on repeating ‘feed me’ over and over again. Up till then, he had been suppressing his urges to eat. He had to save up on the dwindling account he had saved up in his pocket-his soaked, water drenching pocket. What he wouldn’t do for a steak or two. Or three for that matter. He wanted it to be bloody one too. Both the savory flavors of the marinade and the blood mixing in together on his palate would do him good.

One. A booming sound. The sound of something-or someone-pounding into the earth reverberated through the slits and cracks of the city. Heiki turned his head towards the direction but returned back to his thoughts on food. He had a thing of moving towards trouble. If any, he was usually the one who ended up creating a troubling dilemma with whomever he came across. He had a choice. To choose to go to that area to satiate that burning curiosity-his stomach did a turning and a twisting inside of him. It howled out to him overpowering the sound of the pouring rain. It wasn’t painful. He grabbed his core again as if he was trying to muffle the sound of a screaming child. It wasn’t particularly working

Food first he thought. His mind and body agreed to this notion, saying aye multiple times in his head. Heiki took a step towards the opposite direction and moved on the silent sidewalks of Amegakure.

It wasn’t long, to Heiki’s surprise, till he was with a crowd of people. The atmosphere itself was definitely the crowd of the Amegakure villagers. They have adapted towards the grey skies of Amegakure, use to the overcast that would give lives of depressing grandeur. He didn’t feel anything like depression. He felt a kind of neutrality towards this place. Neither excited nor down.

He moved in between a large set of the crowd, keeping his sense of intuition sharp. It hasn’t failed him as of yet. Some took notice to the hooded man. Perhaps they thought he was being rude or trying to cause trouble. Eyes slit into knives slowly cutting through Heiki without him knowing. Some cursed underneath their breath while others just gave small glances of mild irritations. But soon he was forgotten the moment he stepped by them. He did this several times with the people, seeing if they did take notice and no one did. Not outright anyways. His skills were still sharp enough. ANBU, former ANBU at that, had to keep their skills sharp wherever they are.

But the eyes of the village never left Heiki out of its sight. The eyes behind a fox mask, blankly staring downward, downward, downward at Heiki as he moved. The fox was trying to keep up with his constant movement. Did he know? No, he didn’t know. Or did he know? He kept on moving alongside Heiki from the rooftops, keeping pace with Heiki. Why was he moving so? Did he know? He couldn’t of known. Stop this thinking, it is nonsense. What was that noise just a moment ago? Who cares.

“No, you are nonsense” the man in the fox mask said “Stop it. I want to piieeerrzzeee him. I want blood. Blood, blood, blood, blood, blood, blood, blood-“he looked at his gloved hand examining it like high quality beef. His mouth salivated as thoughts rose in his head wanting him, pleading him to bite into his hand. “NO!” he pulled it away from his sight “Masterz sayzzzz I can’t have any. No, he’ll get mad at me. Me, me, me. I don’t want him mads at me. Oh no no no no no no.”

He remembered he was on a mission. He had to follow the blonde one. He couldn’t get him out of his sight. “Oh shit” a rational thinking fox man said. First rational thought of the day. He looked over and saw that Heiki had disappeared and only the late morning crowd was among the streets of the market district. “Fuck!” he repeated this over and over again. “Master is going to kill me”

“Killzz us” a snakey voice replied

“Yes, us. Whatever. We need to find him now.”

“But I’m hungryzz. I want foodzzz. I want meatzzz. I want bloodzzz” the snakey voice licked his lips underneath that fox mask. He then made slurping sounds “Bloodzz is good with vinegar and pepper. Can we eatzzz him?”

“No. We need him alive. Orders are-“

“Orderzzz yes. I knowzzz. I just want a little nibble. His cheekzzz or his buttockzzz. I want to see if it is firm and round. Mmm, no, too firm. The older the worse. I want to eat it rawzzz.”

“No. We want him intact. Besides, I rather have something like a calve and sauté it in bacon fat”

“Ohh cooksies wookises are the worse. Raw is better. Everyhing isss betterzzz raw.”

They jumped down off the rooftop and disappeared in the darkness of an alleyway of pipes.

Heiki had seated himself already in a small restaurant asking for his three steaks. The server told him that it was still the morning crowd and they wouldn’t be serving lunch till noon. “That’s fine” he replied. It was just thirty minutes away. If he could wait for four days to eat then he could at least wait another thirty minutes.

After the explosive force had caused the current destruction to the ground, many civilians started to gather around the crater yet stay a fairly safe distance from the insanely powerful woman that had just recently caused it while many shinobi within the village seemed to be growing tense as they were attempting to decipher Ayame as a threat to the village. Ayame had a strong feeling that her actions would cause some sort of alert within the village, but didn’t quite think that far ahead when she decided to literally punch a hole in the ground.

While the civilians were gathering and the shinobi were tensing, Ayame’s eyes quickly darted from left to right over and over again, searching for the most distinctive feature she knew of, that being blonde, spiky hair and sapphire blue eyes. Turning her head around until she cause a view of the entire 360 degrees around her, Ayame was able to find blonde hair, she was able to find spiky hair, she was even able to find blue eyes, but she was never able to find that combination of the three that would mark the appearance of the man she was looking for. This would prove to be quite troublesome as she started to question the information that she was given regarding whether he was here or not.

‘Damn, this would not look good in my record books of smart things I’ve done if what I was told ended up being a lie.’ Ayame’s eyes continuously tried to rescan the area, hoping that she had missed something earlier or perhaps, he simply hasn’t arrived yet, that explanation didn’t seem to irrational. There was also the very strong possibility that he was ignoring her like he had done so many times in the past, especially during their five year embark throughout the world training.

Given the fact that she was now recalling the many times of the past that those initiations of ignoring her had actually taken place, Ayame actually started to think of that as the more probably solution in this case though she still question how someone could ignore someone or something when they don’t even so much as know who or what that person or thing is. Perhaps he had just reached to that extremely high level of low leveled attention span to the point where he would do just that and maybe even decided to walk towards the other direction for something better. Ayame brainstormed on that for a second, while placing her finger on her chin in a thoughtful manner. ‘Hmm… nah, I mean Heiki sensei may have a short attention span but not even his is that short.’

Just then, Ayame started to notice that the formerly tense shinobi of the rain were a bit closer than she had remembered, actually about nine or so meters closer as they started to surround her position within about a three meter radius, five of them to be exact; probably around a Chuunin or Jounin level. Taking a quick look around, Ayame noticed them all to be tightening their grips on their weapons in preparations for a potential attack from the oblivious blonde kunoichi. The shinobi that was directly in front of her and seemed to be the leader of the pack. “You’ve caused a great disturbance to the public maim. I’m afraid that you’re going to have to come with us.”

Ayame released somewhat of a nervous laughter as this was said to her, finally understanding that there might actually be some consequences to her actions. This may really prove to be quite troublesome because it might seem a little bit hard to find a legendary shinobi if she is forced to sit in prison for most likely the entirety of her visit because of said slightly reckless actions. Due to this frighteningly probable occurrence, Ayame couldn’t exactly let herself be captured right here right now, she had to do something to get herself out this situation.

Letting this nervous laughter ride out for a bit, Ayame still kept on a smile as she closed her eyes for a second and scratched the back of her head. “Well, you see, I’m really sorry about that, I got a litte bit carried away with something and kind of blew a gasket.” Obviously not buying her excuse, the squad leader showed no emotions as he responded. “I’m sorry maim, but you still have to come with us.” Ok, now it was time for plan B. Ayame simply continued to scratch the back of her head. “Well, you see, I can’t do that…” Just then, one of the shinobi behind her noticed that she was quickly diving into her ninja pouch, but before he can complete his urgent news reports, she pulled out a smoke bomb and dropped it on the ground, causing a small explosion of smoke around the area they were in.

As the smoke from the bomb started to blow away though, all five of the shinobi had their kunai, shuriken and swords drawn but the figure that was formerly right in between them wasn’t in its former spot nor within their line of vision. “There she is!” One of the shinobi with his kunai drawn spotted Ayame running down to the west side of the village over in the distance. Taking heed to his discoverance, the entire squad of five shinobi ran straight over towards the woman’s direction, hoping to catch up to her before she caused even more damage.

Once the shinobi squad was out of sight though, the real Ayame poked her head out from an alley not too far to the east of where she formerly was. ‘Good, that Shadow Clone should keep them busy for a while. Now, I can continue my search.' Ayame removed her entire body from the wall that she was camouflaged into before looking at the west direction that the shinobi and clone went and then looked over in the opposite direction. “Guess I have to be a lot more discreet in my search then.” After whispering her new forced approach to herself, Ayame just started walking to the east direction like she was any other civilian, looking through any store window she passed by as she tried to think of a good discreet way to find her former teacher.

The fox man stood across the street from Heiki’s location looking at the window. Heiki was now consuming his steaks with gusto of a hungry creature. He didn’t have time to use a fork and knife; he took the seared steer into his hands and rip a piece. The fox man was mimicking the chewing that Heiki was doing but instead of blood dripping down his chin it was saliva. “He would tastezz goodzzz.” the fox man murmured “Veryzzz goodzzz.” He took a step forward

“Patience” the fox man said in the rational tone of voice. He stopped and took a step back

“Whyzzz?” He hissed “I want to get him nowzzz. He is weakzzz. He is vulnerzzablezzz. We can strrrikkeezzz”

“Look again” the rational voice said “He is consuming something he hasn’t eaten in a while. He is more so a hungry beast than a man at this point. He is not to be touched by us”

“And besides-“another voice from the fox came. A mellow tone of voice of someone who just woke up spoke aloud “It’s not like we can kill him. We’re not strong enough. Feeding ourselves to the lions”

“Lionzzz meat is awfulzzz. String and nastyzzz. A human is tastyzzzz. I like tastyzzz.” His tongue slid through a row of jagged teeth. It cut into the muscle, causing blood to fill into the mixture of saliva. It only made the fox man salivate even more. He watched Heiki, dreaming of himself biting down on Heiki’s thigh or buttock. He was hearing the tearing sound; a shredded mess of muscle fiber, blood and saliva all pouring down his chin. Would Heiki scream? No, the fox man would’ve eaten his vocal cords. It’s been awhile since he had something raw as a vocal cord. He prefer female because it doesn’t have that deepening quality that males have but he’ll make the exception.

He felt a movement in his crouch, something stirring like an old snake “Hellozzz? What’s thissss” He didn’t realize it before but he was now developing an erection. Not an obvious one of course, his pants wouldn’t allow it to roam that freely. It was instead throbbing, pulsating in and out. Even with the pants restricting it, it was hard for it to settle down.

The fox man didn’t mind it. He rather let it do its thing. He had very rare occasions of actually having an erection. He typically only got one when he was about to consume something he thought was delectable to his palate. It was usually young children, young boys for that matter. He wasn’t interested in women in the obvious sense that birds are attracted to other birds for mating. He only viewed them like cattle ready to be cooked and marinade. He never got a hard on from women and women never got turned on by him. He wasn’t a treat for the eyes to see anyway. His looks were as charming as throw up is tantalizing to eat. The fox man didn’t care about such things. He didn’t care if anyone heard him talk to himself or if he had a full blown erection in public. He only cared about eating and eating and eating. He cared about nothing else.

Heiki wiped his mouth clean. He would ask for more steak but he couldn’t let his hunger control him. He wasn’t full but he was damn near content. He paid the bill and left out the restaurant. The rain continued to downpour not to Heiki’s surprise. He put the hood back over his head and continued on moving. It wasn’t any surprise that the fox man had already moved across the street to the restaurant and blended in with a crowd of people.

The fox man was silent with his movements, staying not to close to the person in front or behind him. He had to keep his breathing to a slow one. In and out, in and out. He didn’t want to breathe in and out too hard. It’ll be bad enough for his crowd to take notice of his disturbed behavior and then disperse. It’ll cause to much attention and the fox man couldn’t risk that. He had to watch Heiki. He wanted him. He wanted to eat him. Every part of him. Why? He didn’t know why. Why question something that might taste delicious to him.

Heiki had a sudden cold shiver run down his skin. It crawled and then crawled again up his spine and down his arms and then down his legs. He knew this feeling and knew it very well. Kill intent wasn’t some much so hard to hide. It was in fact very easy to do so. A large majority of people have kill intent. When those emotions like jealousy, envy, lust and all those other emotions consume a person, kill intent comes into the picture. This kill intent was more or less controlled which a smaller minority posses. An even a smaller minority, the rare few that can even use the potential of said kill intent could even phase through Heiki’s will.

To have an kill intent that can give him shivers meant that Heiki was nearby someone who was eager to him. He already had a feeling it was him seeing that it was targeted only him and not the general populace. Heiki looked to the left and saw windows upon windows of consumerism. The fine amount of it all was startling but that wasn’t what it was. He turned to his left and saw the empty streets in the middle being drenched in rain water and another set of people on the other side of said street.

Ok so it’s not from my right and it’s not from my left. In front? It was plausible but no. Whatever this feeling came from, it was coming from behind him.

Heiki didn’t stop moving but he did slow down. It was just enough to keep the pace of the crowd he was moving in but slow enough just to feel that killing vibration. As he moved farther away from the group and towards another, he could feel that intent getting stronger and stronger. The feeling of someone’s hands grabbing at his arms then slowly rising up to his shoulder started and only pressed against Heiki the closer he got to it. To the fox man’s surprise, he was going to get a chance to at least smell Heiki if he continue to do that. He was salivating now underneath that mask and it was only getting worse as Heiki had not entered into the group.

The fox man hand twitched, his fingers moving irregularly. They were dying to grab at Heiki now, dying to put its long, slender fingers around Heiki’s neck. He wanted to squeeze his neck, feel every cord of his muscle tense and feel his breathing pipe close in and collapse as he strangled every piece of life out of Heiki

He said to be pati-FUCK being patient! The fox man didn’t care what his other voices were saying; they just wanted to be viewed upon the master as a good servant. He didn’t give a flying titty fuck as to whether or not the master wanted Heiki alive. He wanted him dead and eaten. That’s all that matters to him. He just wanted to eat. He just wanted to- Every muscle in his body stopped reacting, froze in place by some invisible ice. His body wanted to jump, to react on this unprecedented feeling that instantaneously froze him. He glared forward at the man standing right in front of him. The crowd had continue to move onward as if nothing happen. To be honest, they couldn’t even recognize something happening. No one paid attention to the man that froze and the man who had slowed down to mold with that particular crowd.

The fox man stared forward seeing Heiki. Those eyes he thought. Those blue eyes? It wasn’t his snake voice but it was neither his rational voice who was speaking it either. It was someone else talking, perhaps the true self of the fox man but no one will know, no one can confirm of this. He stared at Heiki with those blue eyes. No, they were something more than blue. They were the color of sapphires. Gleaming gems in his eyes that stared back into his vacant ones, once filled with kill intent now suppressed. If the fox man could see what else hid in those eyes, he would also see something that would terrify him. It would make him turn around; make him run away from Heiki. His eyes didn’t wander in too far into his eyes and if he was wise, he would’ve looked into them.

Heiki looked at the fox man. The mask was torn to shit as his sensei would say. It was battered, pieces of the mask were missing from the nose, the cheek and part of its ear was gone. He could see that the man had long black hair seeing it was to his shoulders. Looking at him, he didn’t see the man as too much of a threat. If any, this man was more or less a scout. Something about him didn’t give off a strong vibe, not like the Kages. He had to be the rank of chunin, special jounin tops. But that kill intent was something odd. To give Heiki chills was amazing enough.

Heiki stared at him for a second longer then he turn about and moved through another part of the crowd disappearing into the people. What he expected was that he would move out of sight, perhaps go to another part of the village. Perhaps move to another village by nightfall. What he didn’t expect was feeling against a woman’s chest. It wasn’t supple breast either, no; it was rather full-well fuller than what most breasts should be.

“Excuse me” he said not turning to view who the woman was at first. He turned to see who was catching a glimpse of a woman with soft blonde hair that was almost a strawberry blonde with light blue eyes. Heiki didn’t show surprise but it did leave his mouth agape just a bit. “A-Ayame-“

He stopped walking out of the crowd viewing Ayame as she now was-no, this isn't the past any more. She's not a 'was' but rather is a beautiful young woman. The last he saw of her was too long ago, when memories didn't want to be shed in the light of things but rather stay in the darkness.

Continuously passing through and bumping into a crowd of people of a substantial amount, Ayame started to grow a bit uncomfortable with “blending in with the crowd” per say due to the unpredictable nature of how so many completely different people being so close to each other would react to being in a crowd of completely different people that were so close to each other. Most of them didn’t react to kindly, shown from the way they simply stood their ground when Ayame would ask if she could get through, forcing the blonde kunoichi to find another route instead of her usual way of forcing an entry due to the fact that she was still wanted in some way by some of the village’s shinobi.

Once she finally found a small opening in which she would actually be able to move about freely instead of being forced to move in the exact same direction generally everyone else was, Ayame took this opportunity to simply stop for a few seconds so she would be able to actually look around the place instead of constantly moving with brick walls known as people. Ayame turned her head constantly as she looked around at where she was, a few windows of businesses came within her line of view but there was no way that she was going to be able to distinguish a single person in this giant crowd of people so she just decided to brainstorm a little bit before diving back into the crowd.

On one hand, staying right there and searching through the crowd of people will allow her the freedom of moving around while at the same time, keep her from growing irritated by the bundle of citizens roaming the area. On the other hand, Going back into the crowd will give her a closer look of who’s around so as not to miss what she was looking for, not to mention that blending in would raise her chances of not being found by the very same shinobi attempting to capture her, she always had to keep that in mind.

Immediately deciding to go with the latter, Ayame quickly walked back across the street in order to get back into the crowd, keeping a low head as she did so. Going right back to where she started, Ayame started going passed a good few people until she was eventually bumped on the shoulder. This forced Ayame to turn around from the sheer force and look towards the assailant, who didn’t even bother to turn around as he continued to walk. Ayame thought that was quite rude of him but something about him just… didn’t quite fit the bill…

Ayame’s train of thought was completely interrupted however when she completely and unexpectedly felt the impact of something hard right in the middle of her chest, the effects of mental dramatics causing time to slow down in her mind as this event occurred. Ayame looked down onto where the impact was absorbed only to see that said force that made its way onto that of her breasts were none other than a human skull. ‘Ok, now just how often is this going to happen.’ In truth, this isn’t exactly the first time that someone’s face had forcibly made its way right in between her breasts, even knowing the danger of their lives being on the line, most men just couldn’t seem to resist using her chest as some sort of pillows, it was really starting to grow quite irritating now.

Before she could do anything about the situation though, the man had turned around to show his face to her, causing Ayame’s formerly narrowed eyes to widen a bit at the site of the person. “Heiki-sensei?” Not exactly believing that it was this simple for her to find the one she’s been looking for for about a good few days now. Then, a combination of information hit Ayame that her teacher would perform such a perverted act, causing a rather awkward yet still irritated glance from her. “The hell are you doing groping my breasts like that, you perverted old man!?” “Wait, I thought I heard something, maybe she’s over here." Ayame instantly froze for a second as the voice of one of the five shinobi out to get her reached her ears.

Realizing that she was still on the run, Ayame took a quick and firm grip of Heiki’s arm and started moving as fast as she could through the group of people surrounding them. Not but a few meters behind them, the group of ninja were shoving people out of the way and ordering them to move, looking for their target in the form of a reckless blonde woman. “I will find you woman, you won’t be able to deceive me any longer” The leader was growing quite agitated after he found out that the figure they’ve been chasing for about ten minutes was but a mere clone.
The squad of shinobi soon found their way out of the crowd and continued forward, almost sure that they were closing in on Ayame’s location. As they passed an alleyway, the last shinobi in line with them threw a soda can he was previously drinking right into a metal trash basket within the alley before he continued on with his team. Moving passed the back of the dumpster over there; Ayame motioned for Heiki to get out of his own hiding spot, greeting him with a wave before she chose verbal words. “Heiki sensei, where have you been, I’ve been looking all over for you for the past like two or three days. Let me tell you right now though, you’re a pretty hard person to find.”

Perverted old man? His eye twitched ever so slightly as he had a quick flashback of his early to mid-twenties. The countless times he ran into a woman on accident, whether nudging them, bumping into their shoulders or breast lightly, a hand passed by their thighs. It wasn’t that he was trying to be perverted; he was just very awkward towards women. And old? He wasn’t that old. He did have the preverbal ‘aging to the forties’ thing going with his hair. The odd mixture of blonde and tiny spurts of whites mixing into it but he still retain his youthful appearance.

But being called old by his student? Like sitting on a block of ice for days then trying to stand up. Ayame froze when a voice shouted out “Wait, I thought I heard something, maybe she’s over here."

“Got yourself in trou-“ his words were cut short as Heiki was jerked by Ayame as she pulled him. She was leading into a crowd of people, pushing them out the way while others moved to the side to avoid possible collision. He could see the words inbreeded in her Move through the crowd. Like objects, they are still matter. Human beings can be the greatest thing to hide oneself. Be a wolf and sheep’s clothing.

Heiki had turned his head to get a glance at whom was chasing them. It was definitely a group of shinobi all right. If he was assuming correctly, these shinobi were from the last regime. His eyes were able to get a quick glance at the leader. The headband was quite old, maybe ten or fifteen years older than the more recent models he has seen throughout the village. Whoever he was, he could tell he was the alpha dog of the pack, stronger than most and at best jounin. The others were just the small henchmen shinobi he had seen. They were the type that would typically run away whenever the alpha male has left the pack and they were on their own. He devised a small plan in his head as he turned his head around.

Ayame and Heiki had turned a corner. Ayame gave a motion with the hand. The sign for hide was made clear. Heiki didn’t have to be told what that signal. She took a step into the alleyway; it was pitch black, perfect for her to hide. That’s one advantage of overcast villages like this is that there are always shadows to hide in. Ayame hid in the alleyway. Heiki reactively went onto the other side of the street where another alleyway was unoccupied. He took upon the shadows and hid himself well.

The ruffle of noise came from across the corner. Heiki heard one of them say that they moved really fast. By the way he saw, none of them were sensors which was a plus on Heiki’s and Ayame’s part. They moved about quickly moving forward assuming that both Heiki and Ayame and did so. He wasn’t so sure of moving out just yet. If they were black ops, this type of tactic was known as a false run where a group a is chasing group b. Group a makes a turn and hide and group b turns to find they may have run on or hid. The likelihood of group a hiding was probable but group a doesn’t know that so group b would run ahead and falsify it as if they were going to chase them down. Different tactics would come out, mainly that group b could split up and spread apart in the area that group a turned on. But in most cases, usually if group a were novices, they would surely be ambushed the moment they came out of hiding.

Heiki saw that he wouldn’t need to make any diversions. The small group, excluding the jounin leader that was chasing them was chunin, probable of average to above average intelligence. There was a fair chance they use the false run but he had no doubt that Ayame and Heiki speed could mess things up for a plan like that.

Ayame signaled him to come over seeing that it was clear. Heiki didn’t go to her right away and he double checked anyway. Her skill had improved when it came to the skills of black operations but she still had quirks that just couldn’t leave her. Heiki dashed to her, again checking back to see if they were coming. He didn’t hear anything out of ordinary, he did hear their voices off in the distances before he couldn’t hear it any longer.

“Heiki sensei, where have you been, I’ve been looking all over for you for the past like two or three days. Let me tell you right now though, you’re a pretty hard person to find.”

He didn’t know why but he felt like he was scrutinizes like a small child out past his curfew. Probably because he never had that moment in time where a boy could be scolded seeing he didn’t have a mother or a sister for that matter. Heiki stared at Ayame eye to eye “I still see that you’re still getting in trouble. Let me tell you, you’re pretty damn problematic.” Oh man, he felt the contents of the steak churning in his stomach. His stomach rumbled and he could feel a burp coming along. He turned his head and belched out. It was a long stretch of a burp so he closed his mouth for the latter half of the burp “Geez fuckin’ God never run after eating steak.” He cleared his throat “So you’re getting hunted down. I’m going to assume that you caused the large explosion” he folded his arms and he smiled wanly “and here I thought I had done something bad this time.”

“So you searched for me. You found me. What is it that you want?” Heiki didn’t sound too pleased by all this. Well shit, he didn’t want to be found, especially by someone from Konoha and definitely not Ayame.

Poking her head slightly through the alleyway, Ayame was attempting to make sure that the men in purple, those being the five guys that were looking to arrest her, weren’t going to turn around and head back to their direction by watching their heightened movements over in the opposite direction. Once she had seen them turn the corner however, the busty blonde kunoichi took a small breath and let out a relieved sigh, grateful that they weren’t coming back for. But then again, they might eventually start to retrace their steps once they figured out that she wasn’t anywhere in their line of sight while in the direction they were going. ‘Oh well, I guess I’ll cross that bridge when I get to it.’

Ayame simply shrugged off the thought as she turned back around to greet Heiki the way she did. He however, retaliated in a way that sort of touched a small nerve within Ayame’s patience already obviously criticizing her ways yet again, like he has always had a sense of doing ever since he first met her. Letting an irritated smile show on her face, revealing that she was a bit amused but still annoyed with his comment, Ayame retaliated as well. “Oh, I’m problematic? This coming from a guy who’s been sexually harassing me ever since I was a kid, right back down from the time he had at the closed down hot springs.” Recalling the events that led to his crude comments on her naked body when they first met, Ayame’s irritation would only slightly grow.

The next thing Heiki did though was run through a loud and extensive belch, obtained from apparently eating some steak earlier based on his statement. Naturally, as a female, one would think that Ayame would be rather disgusted by that, thinking something along the lines of ‘Eww, that’s so gross.’ But on the contrary, Ayame would only scuff at this, the only though about that particular subject being ‘Pfft, I can do better with nothing but a bowl of Ramen.’ All caused by her rather tomboyish nature that never ceases to amaze most people she meets, especially the fellow females she befriends.

“So you’re getting hunted down. I’m going to assume that you caused the large explosion” Ayame crossed her arms, not bothering to answer that statement as it was already obvious, since he knows her well enough that causing craters within the earth with her bare hands is something that she tends to do a lot, a lot of times where it’s not even required. It was also an embarrassing situation for her considering that this was obviously one of those times where using her brute strength wasn’t even necessary. Still, it did cause just a bit of excitement to raise up within this dreadfully depressing village so there was at least one plus for it.

“So you searched for me. You found me. What is it that you want?” Ayame uncrossed her arms as she looked at Heiki with just a bit of surprise in her expression before her expression changed to that of complete seriousness. It was time to get down to business now that she and Heiki could finally get that one on one conversation between them that she's been aiming for. “There’s been a recent disappearance of the Hokage lately and a lot of suspicious things have been going around Konoha lately, some thinks that something dangerous is lurking about. I was assigned to find you because most of the higher ups knew that I’m one of the closest people to you, believe it or not. They wanted me to find you because Konoha is in an alerted and possibly threatened state and we need you to help keep an eye on things, especially since you’re one of the strongest in the entire village.”

At first Heiki was in a bit of disbelief. Konoha was not one to show its weakness like this, it wasn’t the one to call backup. Konoha, throughout the history of its existence, has this sense of pride. They were unlike those of Iwagakure, whom in the past were a prideful and stubborn type of people like the earth dominant race they were or Sunagakure with their pride that could be swayed by the wind. Konoha was the one village who never admit that they made a mistake to the public, to take on threats like an animal charging into for the kill. They were that type of village, the will that had passed up to generation to generation. And yet-

Heiki wanted to chuckle, it was bellowing in his diaphragm waiting to be released. He saw that even they did send her to find him, why bother? They couldn’t be in that desperate of times for them to ask for help, not from him at least. He’s spoke to the Hokage-the former one really-and the council of fire. He quote unquote ‘expressed’ his feelings with an inept response from both the Hokage and council. He did feel that it was necessary to smile but more of that falsetto monkey sense, where he was mildly aggressive with a garnish of sarcasm.


But sending Ayame? What were they expecting? That Heiki’s heart would go out for his former student seeing that she still resides in Konoha and knowing how he had some attachments to her, maybe it could convince him to come back? Err! Wrong. Looks like they lost the grand winning prize of him coming back, blade and all, for them.

“I already told that village that I would do some minor work for them. I wanted to tell them to take that pride of theirs and shove it where the sun don’t shine but I held back on that comment. If I hadn’t had said that they probably put me under that dreaded category of ‘missing-nin’. Oh lordy lord, wouldn’t want that now would we” He didn’t know it but he had leaned up against a wall, his arms folded just like he use to do when he would lecture her.

“I’ll tell you what I told one person and I know how your attention span is so listen closely. Konoha is a kingdom where it has been in wars among wars and seen much destruction among destructions. It has been threatened many times, both by external and internal forces. Once held by an Uchiha, then by a scientist, then my a deranged man who wanted to be god and those who did not seek godhood but just sought chaos. This is the way Konoha has always been. A part in which peace comes and goes like the wind but destructions comes in like a seasonal rain.” He points to himself “Do I want Konoha to be destroyed? I’ve matured much and understood that I would rather have it in a stable position. I rather not have a dysfunctional anarchy-like system that I’ve heard time in and time out from other shinobi in other countries. Does this mean I want to protect it or keep an eye out? Not in a sense that I would protect you from danger or watch a curious child as they walk around hoping they won’t fall.

“Fact of the matter is that I’m done with Konoha. Helping it wouldn’t benefit me at all, only the shinobi community and the council knows it too. The council understands its position in the shinobi game and they know that if they fuck up like they have in the past then it doesn’t look bad for them but also the shinobi at a whole. They wanted you to find me for reason that may say that there are only a select few who understand. Your generation and below have no idea. You may have a good view, maybe, I’ve never talked to you about it but-“ he stopped for a second to let out another burp, only this time he was much softer and he had his mouth close. “Find someone else who will watch over them otherwise-“ he stopped abruptly. He could hear footsteps that were coming back to their direction, closer and closer. He heard voices saying that they might be back this way. He steps into the darkness, hiding out of view. His hand had slid into his pocket for kunai, his faithful kunai but he didn’t want that attention again. He knew Ayame would hide out of sight

Four shinobi sprinted past the alley. Heiki only counted four. Weren’t there six of them? Yes, he remembered. When they were chasing the both of them, there was six. Heiki was ready to move but he heard more footsteps, these softer and not rushing. It was-no, they were walking; they were moving and talking at the same time. Heiki couldn’t hear what they were saying until they got closer to the alleyway. One of the shinobi was walking with the leader of the group. It was a grumble grumble at first then Heiki began to hear the conversation “-and I don’t understand the reason why we’re just after him. Couldn’t we get that other person? You know that chick? She looked like she was from Konoha.”

“She is” the leader spoke mildly to his subordinate. “If you noticed, she was younger, a generation or so behind the man we are after.”

“Deiki or something like that?”

“Heiki.” The leader corrected “Kibou Heiki, one of Konoha’s historical ‘flashes’ that have existed. There have been two of them, The Yellow Flash and The Blue Flash. There hasn’t been one of his caliber for awhile now.”

“Isn’t that just a title?”

“It is a title but it is something more than that. Do you know why the flashes were given the title? Was it because of their speed, their might? Perhaps, but the masters have said that the flashes were given the title because of their high involvement in war. The yellow flash was in the third, the blue flash was a part of the fourth shinobi war and the chaotic flash was during the breaking of the ninth. They have something that other villages have lacked over those years my good friend. Now the masters wish to obtain this knowledge-“ his voice began to trail off as they turned around the corner.

Heiki stepped out of the darkness and onto the sidewalk. “Perhaps this is more than my personal opinion of Konoha” he said rubbing into his hair “Ade, ade, what in the hell have I gotten myself into now?”

(Seeing the circumstances, I'll just say let's end the topic and say we left Amegakure)

(Alrighty then, we'll call it a close and make up for it by making an even better one in the near future)

(Got it)

[Topic Completed]-Archived