Twilight of the Thunder God (Solo/Admin/Invite)

He had felt the sensation of the blade entering his flesh, as he stood there paralyzed. He could barely feel the warm pattering of blood, and bile that spilled from his stomach and his entrails as the blade entered his belly and would rip the skin, fat, flesh, and rubbery organs within. It was the most pain he had ever felt, but the pain soon was subsided, as a general numbness filled his body down to the core. The cold steel would hit his vertebrae, and while his body could not react on it's own, he could see the menacing grin on her face as she pierced his flesh. As she killed him. His staggering back, his legs unable to properly react. Panic, fear, insanity. He hit the coffin and was trapped within it, his eyes, his ears, nose and mouth wide open in a scream of horror that didn't come. His heart, and his lungs fell silent, and he could feel the dirt being shoveled onto his body from above. The woman looking over him, his killer. The dirt would begin to pile onto his body.Time began to pass in a means by which begins to take it's toll. All of it having happened in a fraction of a second, but the mind had not died with the body. He could feel the body begin to be swarmed by insects. He could feel their brood devouring his flesh, his mind feeling everything, and yet being unable to. The fear slowly began to move aside however. This was death? This is all that death was? This was something to experience more than it was something to fear. He may only truly die once, it would be best to experience it. His mind focusing entirely on the experience of it. The way the body was broken down and decomposed by the horrible insects. The sensation was entirely unnerving and uncanny, his mind should be crying out in terror, and yet he cannot help be completely taken in by the experience, curiosity replacing the fear soon enough.


And yet it was not the most terrifying and yet most fascinating, was after the years had passed, the centuries had gone passed.The bones were brittle, and decomposing slowly themselves. And yet the mind survived it's thought, and the experience. The atoms began to break away, changed out, pair bonding with other quarks, the subatomic particles being put back into the universe as a whole, the infinite abyss. His mind kept expanding with it, until there was no longer such a thing as conscious thought, as much as there was just pure experience. The depth and breadth of how far apart these pieces of him were everywhere, and nowhere. The echo of sensation and of the time, the endless countless time reverberating through eternity and then it was over. He stood staring, his mind aged, having been cracked, and sent to the infinite abyss for longer than time could be comprehended. The experience shook him to the core, his legs collapsing and he nearly fell until he was held up by his shoulders, and his mind cleared. He saw the five markings again, so familiar, and yet so distant from his thoughts.


His eyes snap open. His meditations have been different since that night. He stood overlooking the cliff face found in the western most part of the Kumogakure. Behind the statue of the first Raikage. She had opened up a part of his mind that he never knew he had, or perhaps something that had been closed off before. How could he even explain it? Suzumi said this was perhaps a natural progression, but there was something in his basic, gut instincts that told him to keep away from this place, a sense of wrong, that something he should know was missing from his mind. The symbol. He couldn't remember it even when he had seen it. His meditations always brought him to it, the cycle, so familiar and yet... it was blank once more. The dark recesses of his mind chilled him now. It was hard to go into his mind with the dark void of the infinite abyss sitting there, awaiting his presence, calling to him as if it had something to show him. It almost made him see something that felt soothing. The darkness, nothing but a dark blackness, and a cold sensation like that of a cave. And then, brilliant, beautiful luminescence. He could see the others around him, their faces obscured. Something from his past perhaps, or a dream, or nightmare. But it all seemed too visceral, too real, too... His mind blanked again, resetting back to how it was, protecting him from the void and the abyss. He had experienced death... and he had come back changed. But in what way?

-

------------ 16 Years Ago ----------------


"It's a son..." The voices were so happy, and there was a sense of celebration to be had with the doctors, and the midwives who had gathered for the birth of the child, to ensure that both he, and the mother were safe and comfortable after nearly eight hours of labor, medical jutsu, and the creation of a new life being brought out into this world. The bright green eyes opened to the world for the first time, as the child would let out it's first breath of air, and cries loudly, filling it's lungs with the subterranean damp air. Its cries slowly ceased as it looked out among the faces, curiously, his eyelids agape with wonder and excitement. He was passed to the parents, who looked down at their son, watching him with pride, but knowing full well what would come next. A singularly born son. He would serve as a protector to the royal family. As his mother held their son in their arms, his father would approach, and with a hand, fingertips glowing softly, one red as fire, one green as the wind, one blue as the ocean, one the color of lightning, and the last the color of earth, would press this hand, and these fingers to the boys body, under his right clavicle. "Welcome to the world my son... Raijin"

There was no pain from the marking of the sacred tattoo, denoting his place in this caste system, and within moments of first opening his eyes, the baby was asleep in it's mothers arms. Family, and close relatives came to congratulate the couple on their sons birth. He seemed to have a strong spirit, and a strong name with which to grow, and to protect the Royal family. It was said that the Queen was with child, which meant that this boy, this, Raijin, would have an important duty to uphold for his people. His father had grown up serving to protect the current king and queen of the Godai, hidden in their magnificent underground kingdom. This burden, and duty, would be passed on. The young child had the ancient rights spoken into his ear, and could hear the soothing sound of his mothers heartbeat, as he was carried home through the hallways lit by fire, and lightning. They were supposed to be a dead race, and a dead bloodline, and yet here they flourished in the recesses of the earth, away from the others who would threaten them, and try to wipe them out. It was the reason that sons such as Raijin had to be given to the purpose of upholding the royal lineage. The Kekkei Genkai of the Godai people was legendary, and was sought after even if many thought it to be no more than legend.

But for some, the legend was too much to pass up. It would only be a matter of time, before tragedy would change things, and put forth a line of events which would change the fate of this young warrior to be.  It was a day like any other in the hidden kingdom, which had laid dormant for as long as most can remember, away from the politics, struggles, and wars held often by the kingdoms and clans above on the surface. Two strangers had entered this underground would with a purpose. It had been some time since outsiders had taken the legends seriously, or had come to this secret world, but these were not ordinary people. Their names were well known to those above, but for the Godai, while they had always feared this kind of threat, they did not know them by their name; Akatsuki.

The alarms were raised, and the warriors of the Godai had prepared to fight. Their enemy however, was not able to be seen. They moved rapidly, and with great purpose, avoiding all possible conflict with the Ninjutsu masters if they could help it. They had no love of trying to kill all these beings, the possibility for casualties between the two of them were too real. They had a goal, they knew what they wanted. They would take a child, and they would use it for their dark purposes. The dark strangers in black moved through the underground halls and beautifully lit chasms. They could hear the Godai response team closing in on them."I will handle them, you know the goal, find one of their children, grab them, and let's get out of here. We cannot afford to take on the entire Kingdom of the Godai... curious though I may be about their prowess and what the legends have to say about them." The two shared eye contact. They didn't like one another much, but they did have to work together. This mission was dangerous enough, they didn't need to put their own petty squabbles into the middle of it. "So be it. Distract them, and then make it out as soon as possible."

The two separated, as the squad of highly trained Godai began to do battle with one of the intruders. The other made his way deeper into the kingdom, towards a beautiful structure, where a mother, and father, were resting with their newborn son. The sounds of horrible battle began to ring out in the halls behind him, but his eyes were set on the prize. They knew this could be a suicide mission, but for such a Kekkei Genkai, the reward was well worth any possible risk. The doors to the hospital were cleaved from their hinges, as many patients would flee rapidly from the threat before them. The guards closed in for the fight, only to be cut down by a massive blade, swung from under a great black and red cloak. Panic has erupted, and now was the time to use that panic to his advantage. He charged up the stairs at top speed, towards the nursery ward. The door was cast open, as a man rose from his seat. He looked different from the guards in the halls, this man was clearly a veteran warrior. The woman holding a child shrieked with fear as she rolled over to try and protect her son. The two men began to do battle in the room, as elemental jutsu was cast off, walls being destroyed and moved, the hospitals foundations shaking as counter was met with counter, and the sound of cold steel met another blade.

The violence culminated in a large feedback explosion as jutsu met jutsu, catastrophic damage was done to the building, causing much of it to collapse completely. The brave man died trying to protect his family, and the Akatsuki intruder was severely wounded, his body ripped open, gasping for breath. The woman clutched her child even as the severely weakened man would strike her aside, and took the infant screaming from the now collapsed hospital. He didn't have backup from his associate, and he could only assume with the combat prowess of the legendary bloodline, that he wouldn't need to go look for him. The baby kept crying into the dark corridors, echoing as the squads tried to locate the second intruder. His vision was blurring, his mind was getting weaker. What the hell had that man hit him with? It wasn't like any Jutsu he had ever seen before. The world was getting dark... but he had to complete his mission. The Akatsuki needed this Kekkei Genkai for themselves. He evaded the remaining patrols, and made it back through the cities entrance, escaping out into the night, and into a dark forest. The pain at his insides kept tearing and ripping at him. The shock returned to his face, and to his eyes, as he could feel the horrible agony returning to him.

He could feel something churning within him, something unnatural. The baby kept crying, but he couldn't hear that now. He could only feel the whirling of five elements awakening inside of his body, the last thought he had, was the pain, as his body was ripped asunder, the five sleeper cells of energy erupting outwards, spilling blood, and gore across the forests, and a child crying out into the night for his mother, unheard and unseen.

The sun was warm. The eyes of a curious, young, but assuredly hungry baby open wide to the sunlight for the first time breaking through the canopy of foliage from trees. He himself is wrapped in a blanket, covered in the dried gore of the kidnapper who had slain him, a parting gift from his fathers Jutsu. The noises of the forest were all around the baby, who did not know he might have been one of the first of his people to see this world in centuries or more. The bright green eyes would look all over, anywhere his tiny head could muster. The birds flew in the sky bringing laughter and a smile to the innocent young boy. The pangs of hunger set in for him again soon after, as he pouted, and tears welled up in his eyes again. The new sounds, while curious, couldn't change the babies mind that food was what it needed, the prime biological requirement to survive, and being helpless entirely to do anything about it.

The wheels of the wagon creaked and groaned as the oxen pulling the cart stumbled on. The beasts or burden groaned almost as much as the wooden axles of a cart. The driver and his young wife smiled to one another. They had just been on their honeymoon together outside of their small fishing village. They were poor, but happy. The cart was a loan from another family for their wedding gift, the two having only been wed a few months, but they had been together since they were children. In Kito, it was often sure whom you'd marry merely based on how many children the ten families had at the time, and who was about the same age. The Urayama had been in this part of the world for nearly six hundred years, the small fishing village supporting the local population all that time. Wars came and went, as did kingdoms and empires, but the need for food was a constant, and so they made enough to get by, even if it wasn't in the life of luxury. The Oxen came to a sudden halt, as the two looked on front of them.

The scene was that of shock. The oxen were unsettled, the smell of blood and other viscera lined the air, and in the middle of it all almost at the focal point was a bundle of rags. The sound had been blocked out for a time due to the sheer horror before them. The sound of a child. Nervous and unsure at first, the young couple got out from their wagon, and slowly approached the scene. Looking down into the pile of rags, they saw a baby, with bright green eyes crying and holding it's arms out for help, to the only people he could see. In the middle of all this, there was a child. The two had heard stories and legends of the Shinobi, everyone had, no matter what country they were in. Both knew in their hearts that this boy was perhaps part of something far greater than this small town couple could understand. But both of them knew that this child wouldn't survive if he were left here. They couldn't leave a child, no matter who it was. The woman took the small baby into her arms, as the two looked for any signs of who he might be. They found nothing, as the cart pulled away back down the road. The baby had since stopped crying, and now smiled and laughed as the woman would cheer him up, the baby feeling the warmth of her embrace, as it fell asleep once more. He was brought to the village of Kito...

He lay awake in the hospital. It had not been long since the two women who had been looking after him had left to handle other jobs and duties which had arisen. Kinnojo had suffered a defeat, one which he knew he would suffer, against one he considered a friend, and mentor. And perhaps... he mused to himself he thought more. Not that he was the most subtle of people when it came to such things. And she had absolutely beat the crap out of him at the arena in front of his Sensei, and another friend. And yet he couldn't he happier, as odd as the sensation might have been. The fight for him was an exhilarating first. Never before had he been in battle, especially not anything like that. His combat training had been on targets, and it was nowhere near the same. His admiration though was more to his opponent. She was lethal, graceful, merciless, and beautiful. She even was kind enough to reset his ankle after she had dropped a statue on it and kicked it with her full force. Maybe people were right about him. Maybe he was actually just exceptionally odd. It was certainly something to ponder about, though his smile couldn't be so easily taken from him,despite the horrible pain felt in his ankle, the thickened and rebuilt bone meant he would heal, and walk, but he would be weak for a time. He closed his eyes slowly, and began to sink back into the darker recesses of his mind. He had information, something to seek out. That which he had been seeing all this time.


He began to enter his own mind once again. The inner, inward self. There was a horrible pull to the dark place any time he went there. The entry into the dark abyss would always be there now perhaps, until he understood it. He had done a lot of reading, but he couldn't get any true specifics about what it is. He had seen it before. Five odd symbols. They were different than how he had seen them in his waking mind... and this is why even now he could not fully understand what he has been able to see before him in this dark abyss of secrets. The image was burned into his mind, as if it were something that had always been there, that had always been staring him in the face, and yet try as he might, when he tried to wrack his brain, he simply was incapable of seeing the bigger picture. He never had problems with these puzzles before, but again that gut instinct that something was wrong stared him dead in the face. It was a torment, His ways of thought no longer existed. It was less a means of understanding, thought, and conciousness, as it was the feeling of sensations being sent across an infinity, to wash over in an experience of self. And to interpret these meanings was more difficult than he could ever possibly hope to comprehend so easily. His mind was not structured in this nonlinear, almost alien geometry.


It was then that something new happened. He would feel an odd sensation, as a beam of light would come out from the middle of this nearly alien geometry, and he could see, or not see... feel things. A warm sensation, as if he were being held for the first time. He smiled in his minds eye at the calming sensation, the first he had ever felt in this abyssal void. He could feel arms, larger arms than he has ever felt, holding him closely. He would make out the words... "Welcome Son" in a voice he's never heard before. He felt an odd sensation almost flooding into his chest, before he felt and experienced nothing again. What was this odd sensation? Was that his father? The distance and the echo of the eternity must have distorted it... or were these the memories of another? Did Suzumi do something that copied over to his mind? He'd need to check with her late to try and find out more. His eyes opened once again as he would find himself at the hospital, his eyes looking towards the ceiling and he was blinking. He had to figure this out somehow... he'd try and ask Suzumi, or somebody who knew more.

---------- 10 Years Earlier ----------


The sun was just coming up on the horizon, as the four children ran out from the small wooden home on the coast. There was the sound of joy in the air as they ran out to the sand. Where most people dreamed of visiting luxurious waters and beaches with white sand, these children, two brothers and their two sisters had every day here. Their mother keeping watch from the kitchen window. "If you four swim so much you are going to grow gills and become fish!" She used to jokingly warn them. The sun on the ocean revealed the four or five boats on the water for a few hours already. Their father was out there as he always was so early, bringing in whatever catch he could. It was a hard life, but the minds and games of children made happiness out of what little they had. Kinnojo, as he was now named stood out among his brothers and sisters. He was older than all of them. He was taller than his brother Moku, and his sisters Rin and Shizume. He also had an unusual white hair, where his siblings had black. None of the children questioned it, and the small town of Kito promised to keep the secret of the poor boys past. His parents had raised him as their own, and for all they cared he could believe them to be his real parents.

"So you really want to become a Shinobi Kin?" Moku and Kin always talked about how they would one day become ninja masters like the legends that came from each of the villages. All the siblings, even Rin who was only four, would play their games pretending to be Kage from each of the great villages. Kin always proclaimed himself to be the Raikage in their games, with his legendary skills of blade and lightning. Fearless, kind, and strong. Moku always demanded to be the Mizukage, and the competition between the two of the boys especially barely even six months apart was fierce, often ending in fist fights as young brothers often do. Every day, his parents would watch and listen to his dreams to grow up and become strong, to leave and follow his dream. It broke their hearts keeping the secret, but they wanted to protect their boy. Some day he would surely grow out of his boyhood dreams.

That day while swimming, Kin and Moku swam out too far, past the point their mother usually allowed in their fraternal competitions. "The Mizukage rules the waves!" His brother chanted as he swam faster outwards. "The Raikage never backs down from a challenge! He never loses!" Kin shouted back as they kept going. Kin was too focused on winning to hear his brother give up and go back. He thought it was another trick. He  didn't hear his mothers cries back at shore. It wasn't until he looked back and didn't see the shore that he felt absolute terror. The tide had gone out... and brought him out to the open ocean.

He screamed for help which fell on deaf ears as he tried to swim back to shore. Each yell filled his mouth with sea water, and he soon learned to close his mouth and swam. But each wave carried him out farther, and farther into the sea. He was so cold. His mind kept screaming for him to keep going on, to survive. His lungs and his limbs burned with futile exhaustion. It was all he could do to stay afloat among the waves. His tears of helplessness joined the ocean, as he came to realize that he was going to die here, alone. He would never become a Ninja. Never see his parents or his brother and sisters again. He was filled with crushing sorrow of the inevitable, not seeing what came at him from below.


Kin couldn't remember much of what happened after that moment he felt the hot liquid pain in his leg. He didn't see the shark that had mistaken him for a lone seal struggling in the surf. He felt the pain, and then nothing, as through the fog he saw a shape in the water, and could swear he heard voices before his world turned to darkness, his mind and his body accepting his fate.

"GET HIM ON BOARD!" Kenshi Urayama, the man who took this boy from the road and the other fisherman from the village pulled the bleeding unconcious boy from the waves. They had all seen the shark hit him and throw him like a rag doll. The shark didn't finish the boy, disappointed it wasn't the seal it expected. They all knew what it probably meant. "His leg! The shark missed!" Some of the fishermen looked on astonished even as they brought blankets and bandages to the seriously torn muscle. The boy was on the edge of death, but the sharks teeth only somehow grazed him. The boat rocked violently as they paddled for shore.


He awoke to the sight of a bright light, the gulls in the air, and the feeling of his sleeping mothers hand holding his as she was in a chair beside him. As Kin looked around, the first thing he saw was Moku, his younger brother sobbing with both fear and happiness, as he shouted to wake everyone. "Kins eyes are open! He's alive! He's alive!" The young boy leapt onto his brother. Kins mother and sisters, and even his father, who looked a nervous wreck came out immediately to see him. He felt so weak, and tired. He had no idea what happened to him or how long he had been sleeping. Even as they kissed him and cheered, he remembered the terror, the fear of death, and the acceptance of what had happened to him. He had survived somehow.

It was a month before Kin got out of bed. He had to use crutches due to the severe injury to his muscle tissue. The doctor from the closest village said he would be lucky to walk again, but that chances were he would remain a cripple for the rest of his days. Something about hearing those words, seeing the sadness on his younger brothers face, and the worry of his parents made him wonder if it wouldn't have been better for the shark to have killed him, or for the abyss of the ocean to have swallowed him. He would instead have to live his days a burden on his family. Something about that was unacceptable. Why would the Gods spare his life if only to make others suffer? To make him suffer?

He didn't understand why life would be so unfair to him. Now, as his siblings would play, he would sit at home. There was little for a cripple to do as a child but retreat back into his own mind, the sadness and the feeling of helplessness crushed the joy his heart once held. He lacked purpose. But the world works in strange ways. Having heard of the accident from the physician who had helped repair Kins leg, am old man from the closest town made a trip to see him. He was old, his face weathered. When his mother first answered the door she seemed uncertain at first. The old man asked if he could see her son, as the doctor had directed him on where he could be found. Once he showed her his necklace, she bowed her head in respect and showed him in.

She let him in. Kins eyes turned to the odd wanderer. Nobody had ever come to see him before after all he was but a child. "So you are the boy that felt the sharks teeth and made it out alive?" The old man had a kindly voice to him. He bore an odd symbol on a pendant around his neck and wore a warm smile. Kin couldn't find it in him to return the smile. He was unsure, and confused. His mother was in the other room. Kin spoke quietly not wishing to upset his mother. "A lot of good surviving has done me. Perhaps I should have not been pulled out." He closed his eyes. The symbol. He had heard his mother say once that those who bore the symbol were monks, holy men who would travel the world.

Upon hearing this the old monk frowned. "But... you did not die. You are still here. Life is a blessing that the Gods have given you, and you reject this most holy of gifts?" The old monk leaned on his walking stick sitting in a chair across from him. Kin turned red with embarrassment not sure how to respond. "N... no sir. I did not mean like that. I just... do not know why they would have saved me only to leave me a cripple." His heart sank, and yet the old man smiled. "A most... logical question to ask. The Gods are hard to understand my boy. I have spent my whole life in dedication to understanding them, and I still have so much more to learn." The monk paused a moment before continuing. "Perhaps... they did this for a reason. Perhaps there is something they need you to do." Kin looked up oddly at the strange man. What could he possibly mean?

The old monks eyes seemed to glow as he continued to speak. "There are tales that the wisest and most intelligent of the Gods had to give something up in order to gain great wisdom and intelligence. It is said that this must be a fair trade in order to remain humble in such knowledge. For some mortals too, it seems, must suffer for knowledge." The old man moved his robe to display a horrific scar, faded by countless decades over his right leg. "I too... wondered why the Gods had forsaken me. But they were trying to guide me." Kins eyes opened wide. The man's scar looked a lot like his own. "You... you survived a shark attack?" The old man simply nodded to the boy. "I was bedridden for months. I felt like I would be stuck that way forever. But I found solace and peace within books, and within my own mind. Can you read boy?"

Kin shook his head. Such a small town had little use for reading and writing, and no schools to speak of. "No sir... nobody in Kito can read or write." Kin just took a deep breath. Something about knowing he wasn't entirely alone in this comforted the young boys heart and mind. "Then... do you wish to learn?" Kins eyes opened wide for a moment. To read and write the books that the stories and legends came in? That, he felt, could be something extraordinary.

((More to come))