• The Story of Katakune Tamoku
    (Hope Rejuvinated)

    Chapter 10 - "Capturing The Winds"


    Standing ontop of a large plataeu, a dark skinned woman sniffed the morning air and chuckled quietly to herself, "Hmm, I smell disaster coming." She backed away from the glorious desert view, even though the clear view was blank, the rolling sands made for a beautiful picture, and without turning back around said, "Don't... Underestimate me."
    I looked back up at the pink morning sun and thought about what to do next. What direction is the Sand Village and how do I get there? "Hey," a voice was heard from behind. It was the red haired-messenger. He sat down beside me and looked back up at me with a squint. I had no control over my actions but for no reason, I started shaking inside. My heart skipped a beat, and I felt like I've seen this person before. I started blushing, and noticed the similar eye. "Rookie, heh, I know you're new at this, and you have no idea where anything is, but this is a good start. We're already in the Wind Country," He smiled. His thin orange hair covered his right eye and his freckles perked up with his smile and his squinting eyes. I didn't speak, letting him fill me with as much information as possible first. He stood up and tightly groped my shoulder. His grip was strong, and that was the first time I noticed his heavy muscles that showed off his abdomen. I sweated and looked back at him. "So are you going to help me-- uh... lead me to the Sand Village?" I stuttered. He stared back at me and with a serious face and explained, "I will. I will lead you to the entrance of the Sand Village, but be quick! There is strong surveilance, considering this is one of the five great countries. From there, you shall search, stealthily, for the Shukaku woman. And also, remember, you are one of the highest shinobi imaginable. You are better than a ninja, more skilled. You are an assassin! Go in there unnoticed and find her. Try not to get in a fight, and do not, I repeat do not undersestimate the opponent. As frail or as weak as she might look to you, she is still a Jinchuuriki, host of the most deadliest beasts of all Hell. Remember that and you will be fine, right Katakune?" "Right..." I unsurely stated.
    We both put on our kasas, a straw hat with a jingling bell attatched to it, and he led me out of the cave. We walked for miles and miles in the blistering heat, the middle of a scroching hot desert, only seeming to get hotter by noon. And I thought the Moon Island was hot in the summer, but I was dead wrong. We also couldn't take our long sleeved heavy coats off or we would be recognized. Apparently the Akatsuki has already been known for its class 'S' villans. It is high noon and this person finally stopped and squated at a large sand dune. "Okay, it's over this dune, good luck! And remember, don't mess up. Or else it will be fatal." I squated down to where he was and gave him my okay, then stopped for a second. "I know who you are now. Those eyes are so familiar," I chuckled to myself, "I didn't know Kitsunes could shapeshift into men too," I stared at him smiling, "...Okashii." He opened his eyes to the statement, " I can't believe you can still recognize me as that little fox," He sighed, "But you don't know the real story..." I interupted and asked, "I thought you died though, are you immortal? How are you still alive?" He paused and looked at me, biting his lip, "I'm a kitsune, Katakune, remember? I'm already dead. Plus, Okashii's not even my real name, that's a nick-name. A pet name you gave me. My real name is Youkou." He sighed, "I shouldn't be telling you this anyway. I'm a spirit. The whole time after that I was watching you. Even when you were in the ship, but I couldn't save you. It's against the law to manifest myself to save someone. But I did send some help as a guide. No one I knew, and I'm sure she didn't know me. I'm a messenger for the gods and that is my duty. To look over my chosen person." "Like an angel?" I replied. "No..." He formed a hand seal, "Like a demon..." He said, seconds before dispersing in thin air with a light cloud. "Oka-- I mean, Youkou!" what did that mean? A... demon? "Okashii..." I silently said back to myself.
    I heaved a sigh then stepped up from the sand dune. That's it. That is the Sand Village. I noticed four guards ontop of the plataeu before planning my next move and moving on.
    I walked a little distance until the guards finally noticed me. The first move was to them. All four of them threw a tagged kunai toward me. I guess they noticed I'm part of Akatsuki. But I can knock them out in no time. I looked up and right as they got at point blank range, I took out one kunai and deflected all for of them at one time, leaving them to explode in mid air, encasing me with black smoke. This could make as a great distraction, I thought to myself. And inside of the smoke, I threw several kunai at the top of the plataeu, to let them have something to fight off as I "stealthily" run out of the smoke and towards the rocky climb. I started jumping up the cliff and suddenly heard metalic objects being hurled to me. I quickly dodged each one as they flew to me, and I gripped the corner of the cliff. "Just a few more moves and it's over," I thought again. With the strength of my only hand on the cliff, I pulled my body, flipping up and impaling the far right guard with a hidden foot sword. With the force of jumping off his body, I flew to the one next to him and sliced his head off to the ground below. Both of them went plummiting to the village. Then I noticed the guards at the left throwing a sharp kunai right towards me. They thought they could get me right there, but I leaned my body to the left and gripped foot on the side of the wall. And with the awesome power of the ninja, I ran straight across the wall to the left side of the gate and grabbed the edge before their feet again. Quicker than the eye could react, I threw the full force of my body to the guard above me and forcebly knocked him down to the village and turned around to knock a kunai out of the last guard's hand, like I knew it was there. Now for the last move, and the retract of the reflection, I threw the kunai out of my hand and pierced the guard right in the heart. "Now to get rid of him." I did a flying swing kick and threw him right down to the opposite side, where the dying deserts were.
    Turning around I exhaled in relief, standing in awe before the artistic layout of the Village hidden in the Sand. Knowing I killed them before backup was brought, I took off my hat and pulled my hood over my head to be disguised better, and tied the kasa to my back like a backpack. I kneeled down to be less noticed and counted the guards inside the village. There were four on each corner. I sighed and closed my eyes. "I have to do this quick without being noticed. This will be harder than I thought." I opened my eyes again and took out four senbon, or needles, with smoke bombs attatched to them. "Here we go," I thought to myself, "Secret Invasion of the Hidden Sand in operation!" I threw the senbom at the ground of the guards and Boom, they went off next to them. I got on my toes and jumped with great stamina to the closest guard and quickly killed him inside the cloud of smoke, and then then others.
    The smoke cleared away and it looks like no one has noticed yet. "Good," I said to myself, "Now to find the one tailed." I quickly ran across a clothes line to the central main building. "Show yourself." I said to myself. And in seconds I heard a high whistling sound above me. "Bumph!" I stepped back just in time for the air burst to hit the center of the building. Right after, a woman jumped down, the opponent; The Shukaku Lady. "So you're the one tailed?" She replied, "Maybe, what of it?" She had a bit of attitude in her voice, "So you're the disaster I sensed, eh? Well, if you wish to fight me, let's take this to where we can't be noticed, agreed?" I looked at her, "What's your name?"
    "My name is Utau for your information, and you don't need to know anything else. Let's go!" Before I knew it I was lifted up by a huge wind and thrown back down on my side, somewhere outside of the village, followed shortly by Utau; delicaetly landing infront of me in the brown sand. Her voice changed drastically when she turned her head around to me, "Don't take me lightly," She evily giggled, "And never trust me." I got out two kunais in each hand and a set of shuriken and senbon between each finger. "I wouldn't trust you anyway! I've lost trust in about everyone I know now, so just come with me and get it over with!" I threw all of the weapons but she held out her hand and magically, the desert sand pulled up and stopped the weapons, trapping them in the brown dust. She looked back at me and the outline of her eyes had thickened. "I shall never come with you!" She repeled the weapons back at me along with sand shuriken. None of them stood a chance against me as I dodged blocked, and reflected each one. "Good move," I acknowleged, making two swords from stardust behind my back, "But it won't get you far in this fight!" I ran towards her and tried to slice her with the swords but the sand kept protecting her. It would come up and stop any attack I tried. "Are you done yet," She impatiently said. Sweat nervously ran down my face as I tried to analyze any weak points. "The powers of Shukaku allow the user to control wind and sand, dummy. There is no way you can get past this." She made a fist and the sand copied it, immidiently uppercutting my too the sky. Blood flew out of my mouth as I lost my breath and sand started to crawl up my way. While I was still in mid-air the sand quickly surrounded my whole body, slowly crawling around my face until I couldn't see anything. "I'm sorry, but you are too easy for me. Goodbye now," I heard, muffled. "Splat" Sand ran down as so did stardust. "I have to admit. That was a good try, but not good enough... 'for me'," I quoted. "Some kind of a clone?" She nervously said. "More like Stardust," I replied, encasing her in a giant metal cacoon, quicker than the sand could react. I reappeared in front of her metallic cacoon and laughed, "You can't get out of there so stop trying." I held out my hand and enclosed it tighter, to where it could show her body's detail and no movement could be allowed. "Nice knowing you, cause you're finished." I heaved lifting her, and throwed her over my shoulder, "Jeez, could you be any heavier?" I heard her annoyed muffled screams inside the shield. But I could also feel pounding going on in it. "It's no use, Utau, you can't use your sand from there. Chakra can't flow through things as thick as metal," I explained.
    In an instant though, the metal started rusting and bending in unusual patterns. I let go of the metal statue and she suddenly burst out, mad. She breathed hard and heavy in complete angst. I could notice three shuriken in her hand and predicted her next move. "How cliche," I thought, as I pulled out a kunai and carelessly threw it in the air. She turned back at me, her eyes encased in black eyeliner and her teeth, sharp and feral, then threw the shuriken with the force of a hurricane's wind. I didn't move, knowing that it would be ineffective. And it was; the kunai landed at the exact time the shuriken got an inch away from me, and pinned down all three to the ground at the same time. "Weak," I said to her, "A ninja has to have perfect aim, timing, and balance. They also have to predict and do their assassinations quick." She growled at me and I could see the one tailed chakra starting to form. "Kuso," I thought to myself, "I have to get her before she turns full Shukaku." I took out my ninja sword and ran to her, hoping my next prediction would be correct. She grabbed the sword and swung me around to throw me way in the air. "Woah, she is really strong!" I thought, as she created a giant spire below me for me to fall onto. "Time to take Tatsuka's training to the real level." I threw the sword down to the spire and landed directly ontop of the sword. I quickly took out a scroll and unravelled it, showing parralell lines extending through the whole paper. "Quick," I reminded myself as I bit my thumb and stroke it inbetween the lines. The extra blood flew in a heroic style off the paper and in clouds of smoke, huge spinning windmill shurikens were summoned and thrown to Utau. That's when I noticed the quicksand the sword was stuck in.
    I quickly did a backflip jump off of the sword and kept my distance. I saw that none of the shuriken hit her. "Just as I thought." I said, seeing her transformation progressing. Okay, this is it, the final straw. The spire of sand disappeared and she forced her hands to her head to stop the pain. "Pain, agony, misery. Make it go away," She looked to the sky, "Make it stop!" I stared at her from the distance and she looked back at me, quickly throwing air bursts from her mouth. I ran in a complete circle around her, dodging all of the air blasts until I got to where I started from and threw two giant stakes connected to chains straight at her. She grabbed them and the force threw me straight across the air and behind her. "And this will stop the transformation!" I took out two katanas and sliced both of her arms off. "Ahh!" She screamed at the pain and fell to her knees. "Will you stop fighting and give up already?" I said. "Never! I will not let you extract my Bijuu from me, you heathen!" She coughed up blood and stared at her arms, pathetically strewn on the ground, "What have you done to my arms?" She yelled. "I did that to stop your transformation. It's kinda hard to fight the demon itself," I said back. She looked back at me, her face truley ticked off. I suddenly felt sand rising up my legs. I tried to move and I surprisingly yelled, "You can still manipulate sand even without your arms?" The sand crunched my legs and knocked me to the ground. I pretended to scream in pain, but in reality, since she has little chakra, it only sprained my feet. "That's payback, idiot!" She yelled. I turned back at her and threw three tagged kunai one at a time. She stood up and did a back flip, knocking the first kunai to the sky. Then catching her balance back, kicked the second one with her other open leg and said, "You threw three cause you didn't think I'd be able to deflect it, did you?" She screamed, catching the last kunai with her teeth, "Wrong! It's called reflection, dummy!" She said, throwing it back it me, in hope for it to explode. Seconds past and nothing happened. I chuckled, and picked it up, "No. You're the dummy. I knew you'd reflect the third one and deflect the first two. That's why I made the last one a fake." She looked at me in surprise when suddenly, the two kunai from earlier fell down perfectly to each of her sides. "It's time to wrap this up, Utau." I formed a hand seal and wires came from each kunai and tied her down, making her fall to her knees. "Boom," I mimiced, right as two giant explosions detonated at her sides.
    I walked to the black smoke. Then I took the kasa off and held it in front of me as a shield, in case this was a trap. Once the smoke cleared I saw her on the ground unconcious. "I did it. Finally! I hope I made you proud, brother," I kissed my two fingers and touched it to her head. Then took them off and all of her chakra came out of her body like extracting a soul, adding them into the kunai. Next I cut the wires on her and lifted her over my shoulder, and with the same kunai, I held it up in the air. The next second, the blue chakra made an invisible explosion going throughout all of the air. I could feel the connectivity of my chakra with Tatsuka's and figured the direction to the base. Holding up my fingers in the direction, they turned a faded blue, and the closer I got to the base, with Utau, the bolder they got, until I was at the entrance.
    I haven't been to the entrance before. I noticed it was a huge boulder in the middle of a hole in the wall of the cave. With my blue fingers, I lifted up the seal on the boulder, and like an illusion, it faded away. Light filled the cave and the first thing I saw was a shaded figure. I stepped into the cave and the boulder re-appeared behind me. He suddenly clapped and came out of the darkness, "Good job Katakune. You have proven yourself worthy of collecting the first Bijuu. You may lay her down here," He said. I let Utau go and she landed on the floor, still unconcious. "Is there anything else, Tatsuka?" I asked. He held up a golden bracelet with the kanji "blue-green" on it, "It's the second in command ranking piece. It's for you to wear. Good job Katakune." I took the bracelet and put it on the corrisponding ranking place of mine, my right wrist. "That shall be all, brother. You are not allowed to see the extraction, so I'm afraid I must see you back to your cell." I hesitated and tried to tell him something, but he held both of my hands behind my back with one of his hands, and with his other, forced my head down by running his fingers through the back of my hair and making me look down, all in his command. Before I knew it, I was back in point one, my lonely cell. I could hear an echoed speech later, "Are you ready Sol?"
    "I hope. This is my first time I tried to seduce anything as big as a demon out of anyone."
    "I know you'll do fine. We all know you are the best at torture in your village. It's time to test it out here."
    "Yes sir, thank you sir..."
    I had to know what they were doing out there so I got up and touched the gate. Inhumanly, it crushed me way back to the back wall of my cell, making the ceiling crumble. I should have known. After that little screw up I did last night, he put anti-chakra gates on. I looked up and noticed that the window was missing too. I smacked my lips at the irony. Just when I really needed to get out, I have no way to. Sighing, I remembered there was one last option. a last resort option, I could use to be able to bust through the gates unnoticed.
    I exhaled. "It'll be worth it though, I know it." I sat with the bottom of my feet touching eachother, and the back of my fingers parrallel to eachother. I closed my eyes and felt the cool energy from the damp cave filling me. The hot feeling of the sand consuming me. The strong power of the air releasing me. Being so still it seems I'm dead, I have to concentrate. No distractions and no movements or else it'd mess up everything. I breathed out and felt perfectly calm.
    Perfectly calm until I heard that annoying voice. "Hey! What are you doing?" The voice said to me. I opened my golden glowing eyes and saw it was the member across from me. He stood up and started yelling at me. Without any control, I made chains from stardust that went through the spaces of the gate and into his cell, chaining him to the wall. Then a senbon sliced his throat to stop him from yelling for help. The choking got slower and slower and I closed my eyes once it stopped and total concentration was met again. I felt one with the Earth, knowing natural energy was with me.
    Finally I stood up and walked to my gate. I bent the gate and walked out of it like nothing had happened, then I walked to the open part of the cave. There, I saw Tatsuka and a spikey red haired person talking. This is when I turned on my invisibility jutsu to not be seen.
    "So this is the one tailed, leader?" The spikey haired person, turned to Tatsuka. "I believe her name is Utau. So, do what you have to do to take the demon out, Sol. It will be easier for me to seal it once he's out."
    "Yes sir," Sol replied. He implanted huge stakes into the ground in a wide range around Utau and she finally started to wake up, "Huh? What's going on? What are you doing?" she hopelessly asked. A purple forcefield went up around her and Sol put his hand to it. "I'm very sorry, Utau, but we have to extract your precious Shukaku now." He touched it and it turned a burnt red. Heat waves came from it. "What's going on? What's happening? Let me out!" She desperatly demanded. I looked on in fear.
    "So, you mind explaining what's going on here, Sol?" Tatsuka asked. Sol replied, "This is a new version of my 1,000 burning suns - torturing jutsu. It will keep getting hotter and hotter, brighter and brighter in there until she's so hot she'll have to strip. Uh, don't worry, it'll be too bright for us to see anyway. And her skin will automatically get tanned, getting darker and darker. She will endlessly sweat and her skin will actually start to boil. She will scream in ultimate agony until her skin is burnt to a crisp, leaving the bloody seal to expose itself to the light and release the Shukaku. Demons hate the light so when all of this light will surround him, He'll only be forced to get out. The bad thing is, I don't know how to do this without killing the victim," He explained. "Don't worry, I don't care about the body," Tatsuka started laughing as the shield turned orange, then yellow.
    Utau tried to kick the field open but it only burned her feet and made her skin grill and smoke. She couldn't take the instense heat anymore and I could hear her screams and cries for help. Her endless screaming almost killed me inside. The shield got brighter and brighter until I could see nothing but the brightest blue in the world.
    Everything got silent followed by a deep and pain-filled growl as the field burst, exposing Shukaku, the Wind demon, to the real world. "Unreal," I surprisingly said under my breath.
    "Now, Ritakefurin! Get him while he's still here!" Sol screamed.
    Tatsuka got in front of Sol and commanded him to stay back. He held his arms out and his fingers spread apart, showing numbers in colors on each finger. He bit his right thumb, the light brown "1", and held it out to the beast. The demon started to get sucked into his grasp, and with his other hand, he formed the same purple orb from the first time I saw him. The screams of Shukaku rained through the cave hallways until his final echo was sealed into Tatsuka's grasp. The chakra of the beast was a light brown, and all that could be seen was one little tail. Tatsuka finally shoved the chakra into the orb and it cracked at the force. In a highlight, the Shukaku could be seen inside the tiny orb.
    "We did it," Tatsuka said to Sol, out of breath. My invisibility wore out and Tatsuka noticed me. "Kuso," I thought out loud as he forced me to the wall with his own chakra, not even moving. "How long were you there? You were not allowed to see that, Katakune! You are forbidden from ever seeing this again, do you hear me?" He screamed. I was scared and breathless from the invisibly hand choking me to the wall. The next thing I saw was the inside of my cell. I breathed heavily as I fell to the ground. He teleported me back into my cell. I cried myself to sleep knowing the cruel things Tatsuka has done to poor people. Now, I think I have an idea of why he created Akatsuki...
    The next day I slept in. Really late too, like mid-afternoon. The only significant part of the day today is that we're free until Youkou gets back from reconnaisance. The members of Akatsuki got to meet me and vice versa. And to tell the truth, they are all out of their minds. I learned the rank order of us too.
    First it goes, Tatsuka, who they call "Ritakefurin" for some reason. They say they've never heard the name "Tatsuka" before. It must be his pseudonym, I thought.
    And then me, you know my story.
    Next is Byakkhoshi, or however you spell his name. He is the secret fifth person from the "Shittenshounin," or the "Four Guardians". Or at least that's what he says. He said he found out a way to do his own wood style jutsu that allowed him to create better weapons for his village; The Hidden Craftsman Village. The Four Guardians shunned him for his over-powering lightning sword and never included him on any more missions. He was found later by 'Ritakefurin,' he says.
    Then it's Lance, a Kaguya clan rebel from the River Village. His clan traveled through all of the water-element countries and practiced. The Kaguya are a clan of people who can manipulate their bones out of their body and use them as weapons in battle. Kind of creepy, eh?
    Next is that loud mouth guy across the hall from me. I personally thought I killed him but his story scared me. His name is Chi and he is from the Jashin clan. When he was little, his village was destroyed by the Leaf Ninjas in a battle, along with his parents. The Leaf left nothing but Heat Haze left in his village. The original village was called the Dragonfly village. It was homed in a valley next to two amazing mountains. Crops of flowers bloomed almost every day and dragonflies would come down to mate and be along the villagers as good friends. This was probably the calmest, nicest, and friendliest village ever until one day, for a reason I don't know yet, the Leaf destroyed it, renaming it the Hidden Heat Haze. In cause of this devastation, the whole village was swept out of existance. Survivers only moved. Chi was forced to move too. He was so devastated by all the deaths he didn't want to die himself. That's when he found out about the Jashin clan. An organization where all follwers shall kill no matter what, and anything below that would be considered a sin. Chi finally told me the killings are the only way he can stay alive. It has led him to his immortality. He also wears a Jashinic rosary around his neck that he prays on constantly. Pretty twisted, I think. Especially that giant axe he carries around, calling it "Bat," and talking to it.
    His partner's name is Raikousen. This spiky haired kid is so hyper people don't even like talking to him. Plus, no one can even understand him. The only thing I could get out of anybody is that he has such a great ability to control lightning, that he can make it into a bright green light that's twice as powerful. He calls it his "Plasmatic Lightning Ability". I also noticed he was from the Cloud Village. Other than that, he's pretty mysterious.
    The next two are brothers. Wierd brothers though, since they are complete and total opposites. Oni has the sharingan, a bloodline trait from the Uchiha clan, and Tenshi has the byakkugan, a bloodline trait from the Hyuuga clan. Oni told me that when they were little, one day, he took his older brother, Tenshi, to take him to their mother's house; it was their time to see her. But when they got to her house a disaster happened. Oni says he can't really remember what happened after that but he remembers waking up at a strange village. The Demon village. He trained there and an injury made him leave his village. He sought to find his brother but could never find him. Until Tatsuka coincidentally paired both of them up. Tenshi has two white crescent cursemarks above his eyebrows and Oni has two black cursemarks below his eyes. The only thing I heard Tenshi say is that whoever kills the other sibling can have the cursemark removed and peace and health can be returned to one, or the other. Tenshi, other than that, is extremely quiet and gives Oni the death-stare constantly.
    Next to last is Sol, of the Sun Village. He is happy usually and has a strange, yet annoying, ability to mimic people in a firey version of themselves. He says it's funny himself though. Sol said he is a master at mind and body torture in his village but one day when his best friend betrayed him, he got so mad he wanted revenge. He mimiced his best friend's brother and at the last second, tortured him to death. And because of the guilt he had of that death, he wandered until Tatsuka found him.
    Lastly, is Youkou. The Akatsuki say they never really talk to him much, only to report to. They say he does reconnaisance. He acts as a kind of a spy to find the right place for them to rob, the best place to move their hide-out, and the next Bijuu to find.
    I layed there thinking about what Youkou said to me that day. I couldn't get what he ment by "Demon" and how that little fox could ever turn bad enough to join the Akatsuki. That's the next wonder for me. Why in the world is little Okashii in the Red Moon Organization in the first place? How'd he find it here? And why am I with him now? Sometimes I tell myself that... that some questions must be left unanswered.