book03: murder of myth [inv]

[Eboshi Seiichi]

click

Seiichi floated for a long time in the void. He was lost again, a small boat stranded in the middle of a great ocean. He could hear nothing, see nothing, smell nothing, but he could taste. There was something metallic on his tongue, slightly salty and wet. Blood? It had to be. Why am I tasting blood? No one was hurt.

And then he knew the folly of his words. Weakly Seiichi opened his eyes, his body drained of energy for no reason that he could remember. The sky above was filled with slow-moving clouds, but there was nothing keeping the sun from kissing him. When he felt the warmth he also felt the wetness he was lying in, and then he heard the sound of water gently flowing. He turned his head to the left and there was nothing for hundreds of miles. The water he was lying in was centimeters deep and it reflected the sky as if a mirror. It was like standing amongst the heavens themselves.

Am I dead? he asked himself, but he knew the answer. With the warmth and wetness came a dull ache that filled his head and his chest and his limbs, and it kept him lying there for several long minutes. When he finally decided to move, his joints popped and his bones cracked. Seiichi winced as he struggled up to his arms and knees, still unsure of why he was felt so weak.

When he looked to his right and saw the body of Seiryuu it all came back in a rush. His eyes went wider than they ever had before at the sight of the limp dragon, whose massive body laid still in the shallows. The water around him had turned red, and it looked as if the piece of heaven around Seiryuu had turned black at his touch. A long crimson gash ran from his midsection to his throat, and from it rivers of blood freed themselves from the body.

“No,” Seiichi whispered. He stood up and ignored the pain that ran through him and dashed as fast he could to the dragon. His muscles were weak and with every step his right leg made a weird sound, but still he hopped on uncaring of his wounds. When he finally reached the dragon he placed both hands on the snout, feeling for life. “Seiryuu,” he said again. Cold was his first thought, but Please was a close second. “Please Seiryuu…”

Seiichi looked at the stream of blood that freely flowed from Seiryuu’s mouth. Desperately he reached out with his mind, attempting to touch the consciousness of his familiar, his friend, his father. There was nothing.

Seiichi’s hands fell from Seiryuu’s snout weakly, and the Taki lord placed his head against the hard scales. Eyes screwed shut, he attempted again and again to dig through the void that was now Seiryuu’s mind, hoping to find any trace of life. The embers of chakra he had left finally faded, and without the strength to stand anymore, Seiichi slumped to his knees, defeated.

“This isn’t how we imagined things, is it?” he asked. Looking up at the dead dragon, Seiichi felt tears stinging at his eyes. “You said you would outlast me like you had the others, remember? You said that even after another thousand years you would be taking care of the Eboshi. That you’d always help us watch over the falls.”

The reply was silence, and the closure was naught.

[Yun Luán]

“His last moments were with honor.”

The feminine words, course and seemingly callous, met Seiichi's ears from behind. Rolling over the crashing waves and gulls in the afternoon, Luán sighed, looking over both Seiichi and the slain dragon with a cool stare. Emerald eyes caught the glistening sun, but they were distant, disassociated with the tragedy that lay before her.

Her signature cheongsam, the figure flattering black dress, was torn at the legs to be short. The tattered cloth wrapped around her shoulder in some makeshift bandage that still showed a taint of red through the dark dyes. In some innate display of vanity, she was instant on not shredding the image of the dragon that clung to her hip.

“I was awake when he died. He was at peace. Take heart that he left this world with pride, knowing that we will live to conquer our enemies.”

Immediately, she pointed to down the coastline. In her view, a the flat salt lands inclined to a set of dunes, finally a tall beachhead where a forest thicket lay in the far horizon. “I've scouted the area though I am not familiar with this land and evening has not passed for me to recognize the constellations.”

Her swords jingled along her hip, complimenting their mesmerizing sway as she paced, issuing him to follow. “But there is highland just north of there and none one, ninja or otherwise, is present. I'll decide the next course of action from there.”

She moved forward. Determined, resolute, and seemingly unable to fathom anything beyond her goal. Whether it was revenge, to retreat, or something else in store for the pair remained to be seen. Alas, she still paced, leaving Seiichi to follow or to linger with the corpse of his fallen friend...

[Eboshi Seiichi]

Seiichi hadn’t heard or even looked for Luan. In truth, he had hoped she had been left at the Nijiro for Youei to kill. But her voice, harsh and unpleasant and uncaring, broke the tide of despair he was sinking into. HIs lips grew taut and his eyes closed as she began to walk. Even in a foreign land the Yun acted as if they owned the world.

“Stop walking, Luan. This is the Land of Salt, three thousand miles off the coast of the Land of Fire. You are walking in the wrong direction.”

With one hand Seiichi lifted himself out of the bloody shallows, steadying himself by leaning on the snout of Seiryuu’s dead body. His right leg barely moved and when it did it coupled itself with burning pain. Teeth gritted, Seiichi brought his hands into a seal and attempted to knead his chakra. Nothing happened.

“My chakra is drained and my leg is broken,” he sighed, flexing his hands and looking to the sky. A piece of cloud looked like Seiryuu, spiraling through the heavens. “I know how to get us out of here, and I know that if we separate, we’ll both die within a week. The Land of Salt isn’t known for its kindness to those who haven’t lived on its flats.”

Seiichi turned to face her again. This time his eyes were hard and resolute. “You’re an idiot, but I hope you are clever enough to realize this isn’t the time for your Yun philosophy or your goals of building an empire. This is the real world now, Luan, and it’s a hell of a lot different than what you’re used too.”

[Yun Luán]

“Eboshi Seiichi,” she called, giving just a partial look over her shoulder, the rest-taking in the sight of rolling waters that neared, but dared not to approach the earth that the Yun had rooted her heels in. “If that is the case, then I hope you will choose your words as if your very life dependent on them pleasing me.”

The ocean erupted into a spray, but the Tsuchikage was unmoved by the mist that embraced them both. “I'm impressed,” she mused, arms folding across her chest, lips pursed in thought. “To get us to this desolate of an area in the middle of such a siege...your Dragon was much more capable than I came to realize. I will see that he is given is due respects.” The words were an afterthought, already she had planned so far out into the future to mull over victory celebrations and what parts of their exploits for the historians to pen.

She also considered what parts for them to conveniently leave out. This was almost looking to be one of them.

A pivot, she faced Seiichi sternly. “Let me remind you, Lord Eboshi,” she deliberately emphasized on his professedly posthumous title, given there was little of Takigakure to rule over now. “That you know little of my talents, my clan, or my...philosophies. However, what principles we both share are the values of choices. Here are yours:

“You can live long enough to enact revenge, perhaps walk victorious or at least die with the same honor as your revered Dragon. Or you can perish here. Damned by your own foolishness and turning Seiryuu's last efforts into a display of futility.”

The wind reached out to them both, and like the mist, Luán stood unmoving.

[Eboshi Seiichi]

“Shut up,” Seiichi said, rolling his eyes out of exhaustion.

It would take weeks to return to the mainland, and that was a gracious estimate. The thought of dealing with her the entire time brought on a despair that almost rivaled that of Seiryuu’s death. And he said she was the one.

“You say I don’t know anything of you, and while that’s true, it also isn’t. I’ve seen your kind before, and I know the parts that aren’t a front are just there to protect you when you fail. Your intimidation tactics, your threats, your every move is something that is pre-planned.” Seiichi gave her a condescending look. “My life doesn’t depend on you, yours does on mine. In a night my chakra will recover enough for me to be able to move decently well, and when that happens I’ll be able to make it out of here. You, on the other hand, don’t know anything about this place.”

Seiichi shrugged his shoulders and the white cloak he wore slid from his shoulders. He grabbed it in one hand before it hit the water and threw it casually to Luan. He then began to unbutton the jacket he wore and threw that to her as well, leaving him with nothing over his torso than a sleeveless white shirt.

“It’s the morning in this part of the world. During the peak of the day, temperatures spike up to a hundred and fifty degrees. It’d be smart for you to take off that dress and wear that cloak. Use the jacket and dress as blankets at night, when it drops down to below freezing.”

Seiichi hobbled forward and turned on his good heel to face Seiryuu. On his hip in plain sight was the Soul of the Dragon, the legendary Yun long sword that had saved he and Luan’s lives before Seiryuu had brought them here. He held it’s handle tightly as if it were a lucky charm and whispered something to himself.

“Can you use doton?”

[Yun Luán]

At some point, she stopped listening to Seiichi, and began tearing apart his rhetoric for things tangible. In the flicker of a moment, she thought of the rest of her clan. The looming disapproval of her mother that sat frustrated and scorned upon her throne beside the Daimyo. Her mother mouthed words that she didn't hear, but universally understood-words that no Yun ever wanted to hear.

She looked back to Seiichi, opening her mouth to protest. But the words were caught in her throat as the Lord began removing his clothes. She understood the practicality of his actions, after he explained them-but she couldn't avoid the brief flutter in her, catching herself examining Takigakure's champion appreciatively. A once over that abandoned subtlety like an unwanted step-child.

His question brought her back to reality.

In response, she stomped the sands and fluidly, a rod of chakra forged stone-bearing the semblance of a spear ejected forth. She caught it in mid air, planting it in the ground triumphantly. “I 'am' the Tsuchikage...”she added, allowing a smirk to cross delicate features.

[Eboshi Seiichi]

Seiichi didn’t need his dragon eyes to know that she appreciated how he looked, but he knew this was not the time or the place for such things. When she stomped the sand and rose a rod of earth from the ground it took everything he had to keep his mouth from dropping to the ground. But it wasn’t amazement that shocked him, oh no, it was the fact that even after all had been said and done, Luan still seemed to be having trouble grasping the environment they were in.

“Luan,” he started, slowly to make sure she understood what he saying, “there is very little food here. Do not waste your chakra with theatrics. We need a shelter built, one that’s big enough for us to fit in but cramped enough that we’ll have to overlap to fit in. The floor needs to be dry and the wall curved against the wind.”

Turning back to Seiryuu, Seiichi sighed. There were bigger problems other than just the dragon being dead; without his familiar, the pearl inside of him would become a burden, not a blessing. He rubbed his chest absent mindedly, knowing that his own chakra production would be drastically slowed in order to refill the pearl as well. He wasn’t even sure if after a night’s rest he would be able to walk out of here, especially in these conditions.

“Once that’s done, I have some things I want to talk to you about,” Seiichi looked back to Luan. “I’ll expect you to be truthful, in honor of this situation we’re in. And change quickly. In an hour the sun will begin to cook us alive if we aren’t prepared.”

Seiichi’s eyes fell to her bandaged arm finally, and he pursed his lips in thought. “I’ll want to look at your wound too. It’s best for both of us if it’s treated with more than just the tearings of your dress.

[Yun Luán]

The females of the Yun had way of huffing their disapproval, and Luán wasn't any different. Twirling the staff of earth loosely in her hands in some martial flourish, she immediately trust it to the sand before him, the spear coming frighteningly close to where the Taki Lord rest his feet.

“If you have such a low opinion on the limits of my stamina Eboshi-bozu, we aren't going to get very far.” She motioned in a direction, several in fact as she jabbed at the horizon fiercely. “If the land is as harsh as you say, then we need to gain as much ground as we can, before the sun saunters our advance.”

The rings on her swords rattled, almost if they sung appraisals to the determination of their master.

Taking Seiichi's cloak, she tossed it over her shoulder, glaring in the distance as if she would intimate the lands to part before her. “My arm is fine...for now. The better question is your leg.” She gestured to the spear of rock, still etched deep into the sand. “You should be able to use that to walk. Unless you're capable of swallowing your pride long enough for me to shoulder you the whole way.” She laughed, a shrill, piercing thing that dwarfed the crashing waves and cries of Seagulls in the air.

[Eboshi Seiichi]

Seiichi took the spear with a muttered thank you and looked back to Luan as she stated her opinion. Her insult was ignored, as it wasn’t really worth any attention, and he looked back to the sky, wincing at her cacophonous laugh.

“We can try to make ground, but it’d take longer than two hours to make it to that forest you saw. All we’d be doing is making it a few miles before stopping. It’d be better to do some kind of fishing off the coast and to make a shelter. Also,” Seiichi paused and looked back to Luan. “I’m going to need you to stop laughing. It gives me a headache.”

With a coy smile and a slight laugh, Seiichi began a slow walk to the coast, using the spear as a crutch. He doubted Luan had the skills needed to hunt, given how she was so haughty, and they needed to eat something before their journey began.

[Yun Luán]

破山掌
"Pò shān zhǎng!"
[Mountain Breaking Palm!]

Luán, moved, the silhouette of her image becoming distorted as light failed to keep up, turning her into little else but tendrils of a blur. The sand cratered, an entire land moaned in the wake of phenomenal powers while the cloud of her villainous cruelty to the air. Oceans bellowed, the seagulls cried, their only declarations before they disintegrated in the back blow of summoned forces.

Seiichi last moments were a tragic one. Though his lips were curved into a victorious smirk, they were the first to go, failing to the devastation of the Yun's strike. Confidence gave way to destruction, the Takigakure's bright teeth exploding out from the back of his neck-just before the rest of him erupted into a spill of crimson. Still, Luán's fist carried the rag doll remains of a body across the stained horizon, until what wasn't torn apart in her display of power and vengeance cracked until the blazing sun-sizzling under the corona of her awe inspiring might.

There, she laughed, Laughing triumphantly. Her amusement resounded across the globe, terrorizing all who dared to oppose the might of this ruler...

---

She returned to reality, immediately disappointed that her vision had not came to past. Still, she could hide the cruel smile as she played the fantasy over in her mind.

“I'm sorry, did you want your other leg broken?” She cooed, following the Takigakure Lord to the coast, the cold waters encroaching upon their steps in white waves.

[Eboshi Seiichi]

As if Luan’s fantasies had been teleported to Seiichi, the waterfall lord stopped, shivered, and sighed. It wasn’t until her snide comment about his leg that he closed his eyes and took in a deep breath. If his mother could see him now, she’d be ashamed of how he was acting. He knew the reason why, but he didn’t want to admit it; he couldn’t. But when he turned to face Luan, the weight of everything was visible on his face and in his eyes.

He was weary. The man that had fought hundreds of ninja, tamed a dragon god, and united five clans into one village had finally been bested. Not by the Tsuchikage, and not even by the coup itself. Every passing moment the void he felt from his dragon pearl seemed to grow, gnawing at his mind and sanity. Seiichi had seen Eboshi lose their dragons before, and he knew that everyone that did eventually broke from the stress of it all and either went crazy or committed suicide; sometimes, both outcomes happened.

“I apologize for my rudeness,” Seiichi said, knowing that the same wouldn’t be given.

Turning back to the coast, Seiichi mulled over his thoughts, knowing that Luan was following. Once he was knee deep in water he hoisted the spear up and took a stance, aiming the tip down towards the water. Even without his dragon eyes, his vision was still sharp enough to catch the fish that dared to swim into the shallows. Before he struck, however, he asked a question.

“In his final moments...what did he say?” A strand of grief interwove itself within Seiichi’s masked voice.

[Yun Luán]

“That you must survive.”

The wind swam about them just as fluidly as the waters that embraced their heels, but not before her words reached the Takigakure Lord's ears.

She moved past Eboshi, arms folded across her chest, back facing the ruler of the shattered Waterfall ninja. And while the wind took her emerald locks to flow evenly in the air, she stood firm, despite the waves that was cautiously debating whether to topple her lithe frame. She said nothing else, the Tsuchikage's gaze was shut from the world while she reached out to something more-a sense of awareness that penetrated the waters far effortlessly than Seiichi's spear already was capable of.

“I told him you would,” she said quietly, short of a whisper, loud enough that almost brought the ambient musics of the shore to silence. “I told him, that you would create a seat on top of the enemies you've conquered-ensuring that Taki no Kuni would never suffer such indignities again.” The waves crashed again, alas-she remained still. “It may not have been the assurance he needed...but he died believing heartfelt that you would end up great.”

Her hand struck through the water. When it returned to sight, a struggling fish wrestled in her unrelenting grasp. She allowed it to fight for it's life briefly, a futile, but deserving contest in her clenched palm before a deft motion snuffed the life from it easily.

“I don't make such promises lightly, Eboshi-san. You'll return to your people a champion, even if I have to plant your corpse in a throne myself.”

[Eboshi Seiichi]

Seiichi was still for several long moments after Luan spoke. He was glad she hadn’t turned around. Drops of water joined the waves, and the stinging in his eyes meant that it wasn’t rain that was falling. It was hard for him to fathom everything that had happened within the last few days, and the Tsuchikage wasn’t making it any easier to digest. Though she had originally came with an empire to conquer, now she wanted him to ascend just as badly as the Yun wanted to themselves. Four days ago, Seiichi would have said that he had already reached his limits. Now, he began to feel the same lust for greatness that his enemy-turned-allies felt.

A black fish swam around Seiichi’s legs and his spear shot down to skewer it. It missed narrowly, letting the fish escape back into the ocean. “When an Eboshi bonds with a dragon, the dragon gives a piece of its body to the shinobi. This piece, a small pearl, allows the two to communicate telepathically. Dragon and men share wisdom, memories, emotions, everything. And when one dies, many go crazy from the sensation of feeling a piece of you lost forever.”

With a yank Seiichi began to slowly pull his spear from the water. “I was a kind man in my past, Luan. I united the five shinobi clans of Taki with more than just power, but with words and promises as well. But their betrayal killed Seiryuu, and with him dead, they’ve killed my kindness as well.”

Seiichi hoisted the spear in the air. A blood lobster was stuck to the end of it, large enough to provide a feast for both Luan and him. Should she have turned, she’d find a pair of gilded eyes fashioned in the likeness of dragons starring her back down. “I will kill them all. Every last Botsu every other shinobi that dared to conspire against me. And when I finally reach Youei, I’ll make him wish a thousand times over that he had killed me. Him, his family, his friends, and anyone who has ever so much as associated with that old bastard.

“Come on, we need to make that shelter so we can fix this up to be eaten.”

[Yun Luán]

“Then you finally understand what it means to know nothing but greatness.”

Luán smiled. Not a cruel or villainous, entirely absent of the typical brand of venom inherit of the serpentine Yun. Instead she smiled warmly, with a radiance that could have rivaled the sun, as the sparkling waters cast sterling colors across both of their faces. It was then that the Tsuchikage moved towards him, examining his catch nodded in approval.

“It won't be as much of a delicacy as dinning in the palace...” she mused, chuckling as her thoughts mulled over something devious. “But I could work with this...”

*****

Evening had approached quickly in the Land of Salt and just as quickly did the light of day shift, so did the climate, transforming into a theater of blistering heat into a frosty chill that only grew more biting over time. The moon hung in the sky, offering no quarter or sympathy to the pair who took shelther beneath the pristine moonlight.

A half dome of stone granted the pair reprieve from the elements while a fire flared to life. The crackling of timber and dried wood provided the only semblance of noise beyond the silence that the two held and the muffled sounds of eating their catch earlier in the day.

Yun Luán had teased about turning their meal into something manageable. The truth was, the heiress of the Yun had proven to work a miracle. Turning the local flora into spices, the fish and lobster evolved into a makeshift course for the extravagant, only tarnished by eating from a wooden troth in each of their hands...and the definite lack of utensils.

[Eboshi Seiichi]

There were times when Seiichi truly had to consider the viewpoints of other people. Luan had managed to do the fantastic in creating an actual meal in their situation. The shelter was stalwart against the winds that blew, but the dropping temperature had already washed over the two. With no proper clothing other than his trousers and tank top, he knew that no fire would prevent hypothermia. Taking a bite out of a chunk of lobster, the lord looked up and into the horizon.

Where as the Land of Salt appeared to be a place where heaven and earth were not separated by day, by night the country’s nickname “the Land of NIghts” was given reason. Everything was black and purple, as if the world had been bruised by some mystical force. Even the moon wasn’t out tonight, though whether it was hidden or starting a new cycle was something he didn’t know.

Silence had dominated the pair’s interaction since the lobster had been speared. A few words had been said, but nothing Seiichi cared for. His thoughts were scattered. There was the worry of his people, mainly his sister and the dragons. Then there was the worry of his chakra. The dragon pearl would continue to eating away at his own supply in an effort to refuel itself. Using any of his hiden was a thought best left alone, and even other jutsu would be weakened, if not outright stopped. Finally, there was the worry of his village and country. Youei was a madman, and Seiichi knew this. But he also knew he couldn’t remove him from the game without inciting riots from the people. Five years he had teetered the edge with that man, and now everything had gone to hell faster than a dragon hatched.

Seiichi sighed and took another bite of his lobster. Much to his dismay, there was one more thing he couldn’t forget. He stole a glance at Luan again, remembering her smile from earlier. This is not the time for that. The reminder did little. He couldn’t help but wonder if it was Luan’s smile or his problems that had brought on this silence between the two, and though he had wished for it earlier, now it was beginning to gnaw on him.

Another bite was taken, and Seiichi kept his eyes on the fire. “With only these clothes and this fire, we’ll have to huddle for warmth tonight.”

He dared not look up to see her reaction, and kept the best mask he could.

[Yun Luán]

Though the Tsuchikage maintained her perfect demeanor of sly confidence and infallible ego, her nature-the subtle anxiety of being detracted from her mission gnawed upon the Yun akin to a thousand bites underneath the skin-vanishing as quickly as she recognized them, tantalizing her with the thoughts of failure. She couldn't silence the generations of refined conditioning and programming embedded into her since she left the womb, the echoes of clan mantra's that beat into her psyche in every moment of idle time.

It was easier earlier, when the spatting with Seiichi forced her to be quick witted and amused. Where they could collaborate in their misfortune. But now, as they ate in relative silence, save for a few words spoken that held little meaning-the thunderous cries of scripture followed by the crack of whip, rapped across the chasm of her consciousness.

Eboshi Seiichi's must have understood her trauma and opted to deafen the persistent orders of mentors from lands far away.

Luán gave Seiichi a knowing smirk, buying time while she digested the entirety of what he was suggesting. “I think you're supposed to buy the lady dinner first. This is hardly an adequate substitute...”She settled for a small chuckle, for his sake this time, though as if dismissing their inevitably awkward circumstances, the Yun tossed her makeshift kabob into the fire-allowing the orange and red to erupt into a large plume.

“This Youei character...and the Botsu, tell me what you know about them first.” Leaning in forward Luán visage was only masked by the licking flames that neared, covering her image with orange and shadow. “They were curious, interesting, but above all else I dare say...familiar.” Even as the words left her lips, the serpent sigil appeared just in the dip of her collarbone, as if the snake itself were also invested into the origins of their enemies.

For the Yun, sensing the uniqueness of chakra was as typical as knowing a favorite flavor of ice-cream, some with different qualities than others. Luán knew this to a degree much greater than majority of her peers. What antagonized her so, was how they emitted energies so similar to her own kin.

Kin that prized themselves as the closest to gods...

[Eboshi Seiichi]

Luan’s jape caused Seiichi to look at her awkwardly in shock for a moment. In the second that it took to register, everything he had been thinking earlier was suddenly magnified, and he began to laugh. Whether it was because of the situation or the absurdity of it all he didn’t know, but he found her joke to be the funniest thing in the world. When he finished he wiped a tear from his eye. It felt good to laugh; to, for just a moment, forget about the ocean of problems that had threatened to drown him since he was born.

And then Luan asked about the Botsu and Youei, and once more the waves began to break over him. “Familiar, huh? If you know anyone like either of these two, I’d advise you to kill them. Youei is a monk trained to be a shinobi, and the High Priest of a Thousand Beliefs. His position in our government unifies all the religions and spiritualities of our people. But he’s corrupt by his own power. Maybe he was pure once, but now he believes that he is the lord and savior of my country, and he’d rather destroy everything than be proven wrong. And as for the Botsu…”

Seiichi stopped there and clenched his fist. Suddenly his appetite was gone and he discarded his kabob into the flames, much like Luan had. The sudden flush of fire caused the shadows to become demons dancing on the back of their shelter. “The Botsu are a blight on Taki no Kuni.

“They are as old as the land itself, and as evil as the demons they worship. They used to be cannibals, if you listen to the stories, and might still be. They use seals to drain chakra from victims so that they can devour it for energy, raid and rape and plunder villages, and torture anyone who comes into their territory. For the longest time they were enemies of the old Takigakure no Sato, but after the Fourth War, they attacked the weakened village and destroyed it. The old Takigakure was built around a tree called the Hero Tree. Once every sixty years it produced a liquid that could multiply a shinobi’s powers beyond that of a bijuu.

“There’s a hundred different reasons that the Botsu would want the tree, but that didn’t matter. Without Takigakure there to stop them, they were free to do as they pleased. None of the daimyo’s soldiers could fight them, nor the weak ninja clans left. At least, that was the case until I showed up. The Botsu have nine leaders, and of those nine me and two others killed eight of them. But we still couldn’t take back the Hero Tree; they outnumbered the new Takigakure five to one. So we let them be, and they stopped lashing out since they had no one to properly lead them.

“I don’t know how Youei convinced them to give him their loyalty, but doing so shows the depths of his corruption. Anyone willing to go that far is beyond reason, Luan. I should have killed Youei when I was younger, I had the chance too, but he was important to our people. But,” Seiichi paused, and for a second the bonfire seemed to leap upwards, as if inspired by the dragon’s rage, “I won’t make that mistake again.”

[Yun Luán]

Luán nodded approvingly, the gentle smirk that seemed permanently along her lips only grew wider to Seiichi's explanation. The tales of Taki no Kuni's Hero Water had drifted into legend, since the days it was destroyed and how infrequently used, yet it was significant enough to be a major deterrent during a less peaceful era. Even Iwagakure had set their gaze on the Waterfall nation's prize many decades ago and likely would have, had not other conflicts took precedence.

Still, she had to wonder if this had been the agenda all along. If not for the fabled waters but to oust this vile clan, the Botsu, out into the open. The Yun understood how far reaching the council, even more so, her mother had orchestrated their schemes, but inwardly she ignited the flames of a conflict-discerning through what was seemingly fanciful and what was frighteningly believable.

Putting such thoughts away, she spoke “I see. Dealing with religious fanatics and the thrall they instill upon the people is not unfamiliar to me, Eboshi-san. But what was particularly strange about them-” She paused, her words dying out into the crackle of fires and the hiss of cool winds. A small shiver raced along her slender figure, though the woman remained as dignified as ever. “It would be better if I showed you...”

Reaching across the space between them, Yun Luán placed her tender hand onto his own. In a awkward display between gentleness and curiosity, she only smiled plainly, closing her eyes both in part to concentrate and to shut out the Takigakure Lord's likely expression. The winds wrapped around them both, but the Yun was unflinching this time-locked into a state of meditative calm and heightened awareness completely transcendent of her surroundings.

And a flood of sensations was directed through Seiichi. A water that did not wet or a fire that refused to burn, at first it evolved from a billion legs crawling along the skin, each moving in a separate direction, aimless-before finally being focused to venture elsewhere. In an explosion of ultra sensory prowess, one that penetrated the rock hut, then the trees, rolling over the small vibrations that tickled sentience into simple wildlife, Seiichi would feel the world as Luán did. Every flicker of energy was unique, like the small differences in someone's voice, despite all sharing the same accents.

Her chakra flowing into Seiichi to allow this connection, finally the Yun aimed to duplicate that unruly darkness felt when the Botsu arrived. An impossible mix of malice and emptiness, what echoed from the masked fighters was just as complex as chakra itself, evoking the unbelievable.

She took her hand away, looking to Seiichi, her gaze half lidded as she left the extreme trance of Hun Tiān. “I've felt that chakra before...but I don't know where. And even so...it's like listening to a melody of a song, and finding that part of the chords are recognizable, almost-borrowed from another tune...” Shrugging her shoulders, she pulled her hand away, unintentionally gliding the tips of her fingers down Seiichi's wrist.

“Like you, I aim to deal with them as soon as we reach Taki no Kuni. A blight of that nature should not be tolerated...”

[Eboshi Seiichi]

Seiichi raised a brow when Luan reached over to touch his wrist, and he mentally reeled at being called Eboshi-san. He opened his mouth to question, but he was quickly silenced by the sensation of power flowing through him. He was not ignorant of what this feeling was, but with Seiryuu’s death he had forgotten what it felt like to be so intimate with another. Luan’s chakra, however, soon turned from warm to cold as it began to mock the chill that wrapped itself around the Botsu clan. A shiver went down his spine like lightning, and the hairs on the back of his neck and along his arms began to rise.

“A blight,” Seiichi whispered to himself as he pulled his hand back. The cold that Luan had inspired of him was kin to the void left by Seiryuu’s murder. A surge of emotion threatened to wash over him but he clenched his hand into a fist and sighed. A cold, winter wind swept over them as waves would a rock, sending a second, foreign shiver up his spine.

“We can figure out where that chakra is from when we make it to the mainland. For now, we have to figure out how to make it out of here before we freeze to death.” Seiichi looked at the small fire they had and sighed again before looking up to Luan. “From tonight onwards we’ll have to trust each other and fight together, Luan. You need me and I need you, and the invasion, empire, and everything else doesn’t matter.”

Seiichi turned his head to look out over the infinite night that stretched out from their fire. In a world of darkness, he had always had someone to go with him. First it was his brother, and then Kyoshiro. After Kyoshiro there was Seiryuu, and now…

Another wind, and this time Seiichi visibly shivered. He looked at Luan and sighed again, though this time not out of exhaustion. “We need to go ahead and do something about this chill.”

[Yun Luán]

The Snake Empress flinched, subtly. Wherever Seiichi's words had finally rested in her mind were swallowed entirely by the subconscious agenda that could not be swayed even in the presence of much more sound logic. As much as she could muster sympathy in the brief tenure the two had been together, it was still conquered by the unwavering sentiment of ego and desire. As two facets of her persona began to mass arms, the utilitarian monarch and the much more gentler maiden, the Yun Tsuchikage could only see the visions of a fanciful future. Partially of her design, the rest crafted by those far away.

'For now' she finished Seiichi's words, the tip of her tongue itching to announce her inner feelings that a strong will barely kept in check.

Seeing Seiichi shiver, she nonchalantly passed him his coat that he disrobed earlier. “Perhaps then, you should start with this. Gentlemanly as you are, I'm sure you can eschew chivalry for one night.” Luán inched over by Seiichi to his side of the fire, but not enough to be huddled together as he proposed before. Survivability was one thing, and Seiichi wasn't a terrible specimen of the masculine stock, but she wasn't the most eager to cuddling up with what was still a proverbial stranger just yet.