Shimo felt surprised by how much more loud and hectic the streets of Sunagakure were. He couldn’t help but scratch his head and lean away from some of the particularly noisy stands and entertainers. The swordsman wondered just how strange it should’ve felt to Mana, someone whose secondary profession as a stage magician had similar origins to these people yelling their prices on the street. There were even some who were bold enough to approach him and demand payment from him because he overheard their stories or their comedy which was inevitable seeing how it was leaking from the top of the man’s lungs.
“You’re not getting a single ryo from me and while you’re arguing you’re missing profit from fools who’d fall for it…” Shimo always answered, or something of such fashion. After all he had spent over a year wandering with his sensei throughout several closer regions of the world and he’s seen and done a lot of strange things that taught him of the survivor’s mentality.
That being said, that very same survivor’s mentality would have demanded from him that he ceased satisfying Mana’s need to regain her chakra and Meiko’s need for adventure as well as Kouta’s need to stick himself as deep up the magician’s good side as possible. The only reason why Shimo went so far beyond his mission objective, even going as far as providing his services for the sake of a supposed extension was because he decided to change himself. His confusion of what kind of a man he wanted to be was supposed to be over, he wasn’t just a survivor anymore, he would no longer just merely live for the sole purpose of living as long as possible.
First of all the boy entered the Aviary, it took a while to code his message just in case, these hawks used for message delivery looked quite strong and well fed, their feathers, even while lacking in color, were shining brightly. Still, as fast as a bird can possibly get they would never outrace even an average ninja, while snagging them in mid-flight was a challenge, every message was in danger of being intercepted and Shimo wasn’t sure if their team was still tracked by Kusaguro’s squad or not. He had little to no reason to believe that they weren’t. Still, having the fact that their enemy was a Konoha ninja meant that whatever code he used it would only give them time, not certainty that the message will remain a secret…
Shimo attempted to honestly explain the situation, he wrote in his report that they had not found the box and encountered opposition of unidentified alignment, doing the best he could to go into detail about the skillset of the woman in red. He also included the information about Sunagakure’s cooperation with the mission, included all the known clues about the actual location of the Box and asked for an extension of the objective. He decided to be smart about it, instead of asking for an extension of the objective to find the Box itself, he only asked the Hokage for permission to extend their objective of confirming the information’s validity before returning home. It was much more likely that their mission would get approved that way, especially having in mind that he reported about the opposition.
The Yuki swordsman sighed, he wanted to report on Kusagoro’s involvement with the mission, he really did but the new man he wanted to become was yelling from inside his part of the brain that it was a bad idea. After all, all he’d be doing would be tearing up Kouta’s family and also it would be an equivalent of signing on the Hokage’s refusal to extend their objective as well as her demand for their return to Konohagakure as soon as possible. Kusagoro was a very dangerous threat as a man with a high ranking in the village with experience in Black Ops unit of the village “ the ANBU.
After the report was done the young man left the Aviary and headed towards the commercial section of the village, that is to say, just about any region of the village. After several looks around and disappointments such as quality of the craftsmanship not being satisfactory or the shop owner refusing to craft weapons for a foreigner the young one had appeared to have hit a brick wall. Shimo decided to ask around and if needed pay some locals to know where he could have found someone willing and able to make custom weapons for a foreigner. In that particular case his experience in the streets got him a little benefit at last. After shaking a couple of merchants who appeared to operate in a very questionable part of the village the swordsman got a couple of them to talk.
“So you need men? Go to the Agbarah Sheikhate, you can find able fighters there with nothing to lose!” the strange orange merchant with shifty shot out eyes explained before Shimo slipped him four hundred more ryo, he knew that the man would keep on talking as long as coins would continue to fall in his pocket. Such was the initial foolish glee of being paid off, he would’ve been wise to use the brief period before the thinking part of his brain turned on.
“No, I don’t need men and I can’t leave the village walls, I need a smith inside the village willing to make custom average rank weapons of sufficient quality” Shimo looked at the man curiously, after spending so much time around his sensei and seeing some darker parts of the world that were not surrounded by protective walls he had acquired a certain cold and fearless look, a look of a young man who has seen too much and wouldn’t be surprised by anything, it complimented the clinging coins in the merchant’s pockets just fine.
“Oh, that’s great! So you’re a foreigner then? Doing some solo work or do you work with the Shaphac?” the merchant surprised Shimo with the amount of information he held, that being said, the swordsman decided not to slip into the newbie trap of being lured into completely unnecessary information purchases.
“Just need to restock before leaving the village, don’t plan on any work” Shimo grumped out showing the merchant that he didn’t wish to engage in an overly lengthy conversation.
“Oh, well, in that case… There is a guy who actually arms the Shaphac, if he arms those guys behind the counter he’d have no reason to refuse you if you can give him an alluring offer” the merchant answered and pointed with his finger at a couple of directions showing a number of fingers with the other hand detailing on how many blocks Shimo had to walk in any particular direction. Without engaging in any more conversation the boy grabbed an orange from the man’s stall and cursed at him.
“Your oranges are too pricy, old man!” as loud as possible to confuse anyone attempting to listen in about what this exchange was all about. It didn’t take too much time to reach the old man’s house, he prepared Mana’s order of steel tipped cards almost instantly and didn’t charge too much, Shimo was smart enough to buy spare decks because he knew of the girl’s nasty habit of running out of them in a single mean battle. Meiko’s armor took a lot longer and that was the armor without any seals. Shimo decided to let Meiko place the seals both on Mana’s cards and her own armor just to save time.
Strangely enough Shimo felt more pressure and fear leaving the slightly rundown districts of the Sand Village than he felt entering it. That was his world for too long, was this man who obtained information like a rogue and felt more comfortable around questionable people who he was now? How long would it take for that man to change back? How long until Shimo can be who he was before? Maybe this decision to change the man he was into the young man Mana wanted to see and inspire in him was not too bad…
The Time-Space transfer office was full of people. Initially Shimo was a little interested into what exactly Sunagakure used as their method of transferring objects through long distances. Each village had one of these but each used a different method as far as Shimo could tell: from what he heard from his sensei the office in Iwagakure used an ancient water well that had a miniature wormhole somewhere in its depths that could be repurposed using chakra. It had a nasty history of sending objects to the wrong villages when used by an unskilled or unfocused sealing ninja. The one in Konohagakure used what was called the “Flying Raijin Seal”, different offices at different villages had the Flying Raijin Seals on posters inside and an object could’ve been transferred from one seal poster to another with a massive insert of chakra.
The mean in which Sunagakure appeared to transfer objects looked particularly odd. There was a glowing slab of stone right at the end of the office room with a seal placed on it, the hieroglyph symbol of the seal shined red whenever it was active and had rotating sand particles around it rising from the hieroglyph symbol. When placed on the slab an object was engulfed in sand and disassembled at a subatomic level, only to be reassembled where it needed to be as Shimo guessed.
“Impressive, isn’t it?” a masculine voice inquired starting up a conversation with Shimo, the boy looked behind him to see a middle aged man, just a dozen of centimeters shorter than Shimo wearing a conical straw hat and a poncho covered with cartoonish embroidered desert foxes, brown coyotes and various Sun symbols. The man’s greyish black ponytail shot out from a hole in the back and flowed gently on the man’s back, the man’s face was completely covered up with a scarf like rag on his face leaving only his eyes visible.
“I suppose so, looks a lot different from the other Time-Space transporters but I suppose it serves the same goal…” Shimo shrugged restraining his chuckles, he assumed that this man was just as much of a stranger to these parts as the Yuki was since he wore a poncho indoors a building of a desert village and a rag on his face as well as that hat. It may have served him well in the cold desert nights but evening was still a couple of hours away. At this point he looked like a pretentious fool just for the sake of it.
“It was actually invented by the current Kazekage after seeing a young genin in the Chuunin exams and getting the idea. The sand is fueled by chakra cells from Kumogakure and the grains move faster than light, it doesn’t only transfer the object through space but also small gaps through time. Just imagine if we were able to time travel using a similar device” the ponytail man continued to obsess over the device when Shimo looked at the device and back at the man, switching his glares between the two.
“If the device wouldn’t seemingly disintegrate the object before transferring the particles that is…” Shimo replied.
“True, I don’t think even Chestnut Hanasaku, the Fifth Hokage, could survive such a device and if anyone could it’d be that woman… Do you think that perhaps that has something to do with how close the Kazekage is trying to make Konoha and the Sand?” the poncho man asked.
“Differently from a friend of mine who wishes peace and cooperation between all the villages and countries… I don’t particularly care that much” Shimo replied trying to cut the conversation down.
“Ummm… Okay… So… Transfer this canned cat food using that witchcraft first, then these coins, these coins… I guess these coins… Can you still transfer more?” an old lady was trying to sort out the objects she wished transferred.
“It’s not witchcraft, ma’am. Also… Could you please explain why you need these coins transferred separately? You do realize we are creating loops in the fabric of time and space to transfer your items so we will need a pretty good explanation to make several just for a couple of stacks of ryo…” the office worked tried to make as much sense from the request of the old lady as possible.
The body of Shimo’s conversant disappeared, the young man could only hear flapping of the poncho cloth in the air and the hat slipping off his head stroking the man’s hair. Shimo’s body overflowed with chakra as he augmented his reaction, his perception and his speed to leap in to counter the man in time blocking his sword strike right above the head of the old lady.
After a good thirteen seconds of the swords colliding in the air hard enough to fire off blueish sparks off of their collision course as the poncho assassin’s chakra infused blade met Shimo’s Audra sword the old lady looked above her head and witnessed what made that deafening clang before. With a more comical than terrifying scream the old lady slowly ran out of the building taking her sweet time to move her senile thighs. The rest of the queue also decided to choose another transfer method for their objects or just to wait this conflict out.
“This lady was taking an awful amount of time, it was getting annoying…” the poncho assassin tilted his head a little so that his cold eyes could meet Shimo’s angry gaze and clash the man’s will against that of the Yuki swordsman.
“She was…” Shimo blinked in agreement, “That being said I’d rather not see her cut down for such a silly reason”
The two continued to clash with their blades, usually Shimo’s Audra steel sword expelled all the force of the opposing sword in a powerful shockwave but this time his opponent used a sword infused with chakra, it didn’t appear like the chakra had any elemental qualities to it or that it was too precise, had it been, Shimo’s blade may have even been damaged because of the chakra over matter principle that the ninja universe existed by.
“This sword, it belonged to the Diamond Hand from Shukuba and was stolen from it by a rogue six years ago… You are a rogue ninja too, why would you care about the fate of some old lady?” the poncho assassin asked pushing his sword against Shimo’s while the man’s katana lit up with blue sharp chakra glow alerting the Yuki swordsman that Wind Style chakra was infused and that the precision of the enhancement was improved forcing Shimo to leap back and avoid damage to his weapon.
“The person I used to be may not have cared but I am a new person now, I have decided to care about all sorts of petty things and it’s actually a little new and exciting” Shimo cracked a sideways grin and sheathed his sword preparing his sword drawing stance and leaning to the side to place more weight on the leg he’d use to kick his body off the ground.
“After all, had I not understood just what kind of man I wished to become I’d have never had a quarrel with you to fight over…” the Yuki finished his thought before his body blurred into a mirage and the entire building filled with a hazy white mist.
“Ice Style: Haze Blade!” Shimo yelled out as numerous mirage version of the young man appeared from various sides of the swordsman. The swordsman could not believe what he was seeing “ the eyes of the poncho assassin were closed. A blue flash disintegrated all of the mirages at once followed by a howling sound of cold steel cutting through the air. Where the cold mirages were cut down the man’s sword covered with persistent ice layer making the sword heavier and duller but also covering over its chakra infusion making it no longer covered with the sharp coating of wind chakra it had before.
With a loud yell coming from the depths of Shimo’s lungs the young man dashed at his confused and frosted opponent with a powerful drawing slash that was supposed to completely disable his enemy. The young man moved all the way to the other side of the building leaping onto the northern wall and kicking off of it making the entire clay wall crack and crumble from the force of the acceleration. Shimo’s passing slash was met not with soft sensation of flesh being cut followed with a stream of blood missing him by a mile for it was too slow to keep up with the movements of the swordsman that inflicted the wound, it was met by a powerful shock of a cutting wind bubble that blew his sword completely out of the Yuki’s hands and stuck it into a wall to the eastern side of the office.
“Wind Clone?” Shimo wondered to himself as he continued to rub his hands trying to ease the overwhelming numbness and pain in the upper sections to reaching up to his elbows. This swordsman was of higher rank than Shimo was, if he even had a rank to begin with, he looked too much like a rogue ninja who infiltrated the village. He used chakra enhancements on his weapons as well as elemental clone techniques, such skill with elemental chakra natures was above the paygrade of a genin that Shimo still officially was.
The poncho wearing swordsman turned his head to the side and shook the shards of ice off of his clothes and tore it out from where it penetrated and stuck into his flesh. He then turned his head to the side angrily mumbling to himself.
“Hmmm, it appears the clerk has fled. While you may be an annoyance your interference may actually help, the Shaphac will obtain the Time-Space transporter and there’ll be absolutely no casualties making our move here seem small time. I suppose I should thank you…” the man said directing his speech to Shimo.
“Why do you need that thing anyways? Do you plan to transport something here from another village to bypass the gate checkup?” Shimo tried to get the man talking all the while he eyed his blade on the wall and planned how he could arm himself without his opponent’s response. The poncho swordsman was fast, he would severely injure Shimo and it’s likely that any chakra augmentation the Yuki would use would be negated by the poncho-man’s chakra imbued blade of higher precision and intensity.
“No, if the old ways are to be preserved, if this village is to survive they must stay at war with the other villages. This device will help us make sure that happens” the swordsman fully finished thawing his blade out and sheathed it preparing his finishing attack.
“Ah, so you’ll transfer to other villages to make sure nobody trusts Sunagakure anymore. What’ll you use, explosives? Rude notes?” Shimo grinned despite feeling a little desperate, the boy slapped his hands together trying to weave handseals to slow his opponent down using his Ice Style so that he could retrieve his blade and continue his battle with ample time. His opponent flashed up right to Shimo slicing sideways at the Yuki’s chest. Shimo coughed up blood, his eyes rolled back. Pain pulsed all over his chest but the pain was strangely numbed by his body feeling weightless and soaring through the air.
The poncho assassin took a moment to look at the boy he had just cut down, his blade was coated with chakra, he sliced hard enough to slash the boy’s heart in half and was fast enough to intercept his hand seals. Too bad, the young one appeared to be quite fast on his feet with a sword, surpassing any sword wielding genin but his hand seals were just as good as anyone’s of his ranks would’ve been. The poncho-man grew up in the Iron Country and was trained as a samurai, samurai would always best ninja in a fair fight…
The flashy and cartoonish poncho once again rustled in the air as the man hurried to retrieve the Time-Space transporter. The swordsman took great care so that he didn’t accidentally touch the stream of glowing lightspeed sands, taking his time to seal the device into a scroll after placing numerous chakra barriers around the device. When the swordsman turned around he stopped in shock, his eyes lifted up so that he could confirm what he had suspected.
Bare-chested due to his torn cloak and with a gash on his chest Shimo stood wielding his blade, on the ground by his feet laid a wakizashi blade in its sheathe cut in two, while the chest of the young swordsman bled quite profusely his heart must’ve been protected by that childish toothpick he carried around his chest as a secondary weapon.
“You appear livelier than I expected, I have no time for this, the village ninja will be here at any moment” the ponytail swordsman grunted out through grinding teeth.
“Neither do I, there’s a package I need to transport” Shimo angrily looked his opponent right in the eyes, the back of his head had a bleeding and painful wound that greatly annoyed him, not to mention the giant gash on his chest that cleaved through a wakizashi blade right in two and also left a pretty deep wound.
“If I quickly unpacked the device and let you transport your package, would you let me through?” the poncho assassin asked sheathing his blade for a final exchange of drawing techniques as if he already knew the answer.
“The man I used to be would’ve, the man I am trying to become knows that this peace is important to a friend of his so he won’t let you out with that in your hands. I am still in a rush though so let’s settle this with this one final draw!” Shimo yelled out angrily with a sense of pride of his new identity.
And so stood two swordsmen inside a clay office during a hot desert evening with the Sun slowly approaching the horizon, preparing to kill each other if needed when the room is covered in darkness. Two men in a standoff.
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