Destruction and Reconstruction [SOLO] complete

[Hikari Kohaku Mizushima]

"Kohaku-nii, come with me for a moment!" She placed her hands firmly on the spruce wood deck as her eyes bore into the young shinobi. The younger boy, known as Kohaku by most at the time, let out a long exasperate sigh as he pulled himself up from his slumped position of leaning against the wall. He honestly didn't want to be bothered today and he was certain that she knew this, yet she bothered him anyway. She was beyond lucky that he looked up to her otherwise he would have likely punted her into the next century.

"Fine, fine I'm coming Kouhi-nee." He dropped off of the deck, dropping down by a foot to the ground and shoved his hands into the pockets of his trousers. Looking up to where the brunette had gone he could see her vanishing into the bamboo forest further down the path. Letting out another, more irritated sigh, he soon chased after her, "Oi! Wait for me!"

Pupil-less emerald orbs revealed themselves to the sky as he awoke from his slumber. Sitting up the bounty hunter rubbed the back of his neck loosening any tight spots that may have generated from having fallen asleep in the caress of a large tree's roots. After several moments he dropped his hand to the ground as his thoughts went back to his dream, "Damn, another distasteful memory." Slowly moving his body to stand up tall, the bounty hunter took a quick survey of his surroundings.

Nothing. Good.

Revealing himself from within the brush, he began to move back to the path he had originally been on before the sudden urge to slumber had impacted his body. It took him but mere moments to find the fading gravel path in the over grown forest floor, and only moments more to figure out which way he had not traveled from. He had no desire to return to where he had come from, not since that area only brought him stress and misfortune. So he continued onward down the path he had chosen and ventured on deeper and deeper into the forest, unknowingly coming closer and closer to his homeland.

The bounty hunter walked for what felt like eons as he passed through thick under brush and even thicker blockades of branches and other foliage. He was eventually forced to produce a kunai and cut his way through the thick flora in a flurry of anger filled slashes. Eventually this caused the bounty hunter to howl with even more anger as he found he had walked in a complete circle around the base of a larger tree. Eventually picking a direction away from his little circle, he even threw his kunai with such strength it pierced through the foliage and made a strong KLUNK sound when it hit something several yards beyond.

With the sound peaking the bounty hunter's curiosity he decided he would make his way through the thick foliage towards where he had thrown his kunai. However this only served to get him even more lost for several hours as he once again started walking in circled around large trees, and just as his frustration was coming to a strong boiling point, he found it. His kunai stuck in a large, rotting, wooden beam with all sorts of vines and leaves stuck to it like flies to sticky paper. Getting closer to the beam, everything else slowly melted into view as the bounty hunter found himself in what appeared to be the ruins of a once marvelous manor of some sort.

"Ehehehe, you're so slow Kohaku-nii!" She twirled around the bamboo shoots with her hands folded together behind her back. Her giggling reached the tan, brown haired boy all the way back at the entrance. "Hey that's not fair, you ran off before I even got up!" He pushed aside thick branches of bamboo and forged his way through the thick forest.

"AAAAAAH!" What!? Why did Kouhi just scream? Hurried now he pushed through the thick bamboo forest in a mad attempt to find his 'sister' "KOHUI-NEE!"

He shook his head in an attempt to bury the memories deep down in the back of his mind, before continuing on to explore the depreciated manor. The walls were still distinguishable despite being thickly covered in vines. The walk ways were still traversable despite the moss that grew on them. Everything, looked almost as though frozen in time, yet covered in foliage. However, after some exploring, he came across another part of the manor. A part that had seemingly been more well cared for. No moss or vines grew here. It looked almost as though it had been set aside ever so perfectly in time. It was, in a sense, beautiful.

He walked into an untouched room and looked around. It seemed as though this area had once been a small child's room. Toy's were stacked on low shelves. Walking over to one such shelf he picked up a small bear plush toy and held it in his hand for a moment before it slipped and fell to the ground and shattered into a million pieces. Then, like the bear, the room shattered, fading into depreciated chaos, and the bear that had shattered moments ago, turned to stone. Was this some sort of genjutsu? No it couldn't be. There was no one around. So what the hell just happened?

He decided to continue to wander around the manor. Mostly now to investigate just what happened. Several long minutes passed and soon it happened again. The decrepit old manor came to an abrupt halt when an area changed to look as though untouched by time. This time, however, it was a large room near the center. It had a large stone fire place along the far wall with a fire crackling within. There was a table near the middle set up with some food and in the distance he could hear children's laughter. However, like before, as soon as he interacted with the room, it fell back into depreciation. Covered in vines and moss. Was this some sort of illusion?

"You see them too, don't you?" The bounty hunter turned quickly on the ball of his foot to see an average height male standing behind him in the door way that he had just come in through. The male's golden peridot eyes stared at the bounty hunter, or rather, through him. Just from the man's gaze, the bounty hunter felt a strange vibe of secrecy about him. "Them?" The man nodded his head, "The illusions." He moved to lean against the frame of the door, which surprisingly did not give way, as he looked around the room. "Long ago a clan infamous to the Land of Waterfalls used to live here." His gaze shifted around the room and soon back to the bounty hunter, "They were a unique clan that were well versed in the art of sealing jutsu as well as various ninjutsus." He moved for a moment to brush aside his ivory tresses that had hung down in his face, revealing a scarred eye. "The village, Takigakure, soon saw them as a threat and sought their eradication." This seemed to hit home with the bounty hunter, "So they were betrayed by the village they sought to protect."

"Correct." The man looked towards the fire place now, "However they escaped and spread out across the various lands. Now all that remains here are the memories of the generations before them, that are buried in these lands." He shook his head, "At least that's the rumor behind the illusions anyway. It's nice to meet ya, I'm Shiryu." He extended a hand out towards the bounty hunter with a friendly smile. He however, did not take it. "Kakuzu."

"Kakuzu, eh? Cool name. Anyhoo, have you by any chance seen a small girl with forest green hair running around? She's my little sister and I can't seem to find her." He hadn't, but he did recall hearing children's laughter moments ago, perhaps that could have been her and not an illusion? Kakuzu shook his head. "I see. Where the hell could she have gone?" Kakuzu almost felt compelled to ask him if he wanted help, but he couldn't shake that feeling like something fishy was going on here. "Would you mind helping me find her? She has to be around here somewhere, I keep hearing her giggling." So that was her that he heard before. Alright that's step one complete, now all he needed to do was go towards where the giggling was, right? But wait, little kids never stayed in one place for long. Damn, she likely moved already. Oh well, there should be some signs around in the foliage.

Kakuzu nodded his head and soon the two formed a two man search party and began to scour the ground of the manor in search of the little girl. About every five minutes or so Kakuzu could hear her giggling in the near distance, however every time he pursued it he was assaulted by the illusions. About an hour or so passed and it soon became night fall. However, with the darkening area came a rather precious clue. Kakuzu could see a bright light in the distance. Following it, he came upon a passage way that had been hidden rather recently well by the foliage during the day. At the end of it light was seeping through. At this point curiosity got the best of the nukenin, and he found himself descending the long stair case.

"KOUHI-NEE! WHERE ARE YOU! KOUHI-NEE!" He searched and searched through the bamboo forest, but never once found the girl. All he found was a crescent moon shaped clip about the size of the palm of his hand. Kouhi, where were you?

Kakuzu soon reached the bottom of the stair case and entered into the brightly lit room. Upon making it into the room he had to shade his eyes for several long moments to allow them to adjust properly. Once they had, however, he was astonished by what he saw. It was a large chasm that had been purposed into a room of some sort. A large forty foot wise stone bridge stretched out before him traversing the entire length of the chasm to what appeared to be an altar of some sort about a hundred feet away. Above him, along the cracking ceiling of the cavern, was lined rows upon rows of crystals that seemed to soak in sun light during the day and then project it at night. Interesting.

However not as interesting as what he saw near the altar. Standing about ten feet in front of the altar at the base of a series of stairs stood a small girl, perhaps about eight years old. Her back was faced towards him, however she had the forest green hair that Shiryu had spoken of. Walking towards the girl, more and more of her appearance came into Kakuzu's view. She wore a long shirt, that appeared to function as some sort of dress for her. It was a lovely pale green dress that seemed to compliment her hair quite well. Standing directly behind her now, having made no attempts to hide his presence, he spoke out to her. "Your brother has been looking for you." Something was definitely off. What was that she was holding to her chest?

"My brother?" She slowly turned towards him, and bit by bit, he could see more of her, including the severed arm she held to her chest. With a twisted smile screwed across her once innocent face and golden obsidian eyes almost bulging she laughed, "Ehehehe~ What brother? He's dead. Dead~." She spoke in an almost sing song voice that seemed to sort of have an echo to it, almost as though she was nothing but a hollow shell anymore. At that moment, with Kakuzu's surprise at the girl's reaction, he also noticed something. A shadow not his cast on the other side of the girl along with her own and his own, and it appeared to be about to strike down. On him.

"Nngh, I knew something was up." He leaped upwards and forwards just in time to avoid the sharp blade of a knife bearing down upon the base of his neck. He landed in a crouched position upon the altar table.

"He dodged~ dodged~" The girl turned to see him, her golden obsidian eyes never once blinking. The white haired male that now stood somewhat bent over behind her soon straightened up. "Sorry, but, would you please die?" Shiryu's voice now echoed a bit too, similar to the girl's. He seemed to be without any emotion in him at all now, unlike before and unlike the girl whom seemed to be over joyous. Furthermore, his golden peridot eyes had changed to a golden white pearl color. "Die~ die~ dead~ Ehehehe, just like onii-chan~ Ehehehe~" This was starting to get too creepy for Kakuzu's liking. He needed to end this, now. However just as he was about to move, another one of those damned illusions hit him.

This time he was surrounded by a group of people. They looked like they were holding some sort of meeting, perhaps discussing their escape plan. Then just as suddenly as the illusion had come, it faded. Immediately, Kakuzu realized Shiryu was gone. However upon hearing the cackling of lighting directly behind him to his right, he knew just where the male had gone. Leaping upwards and out of the way, kakuzu once again barely managed to dodge the attack, however not without feeling a slight bit of sting from a stray bolt of raiton. Sticking himself to the altar ceiling now, he peered down at the two from above.

"It was all just a ruse. The illusions. The missing girl. Everything." The girl giggled again as she looked up at the nukenin. "You're smart~ smart~" She continued to sing and giggle, however soon this became tedious for her as she soon found Kakuzu's left hand grasped around her neck. "And if I kill you..." "Hokuta!" Just as Kakuzu predicted, Shiryu leaped over to save his 'little sister'. With the raiton technique from before still active he intended to sever Kakuzu's arm completely from his body by severing the threads, however, Kakuzu would not allow him. He threw the small girl, Hikuta, at Shiryu. "If I die~ die~ Hehe... They all die~ di-" Her words were cut short as just as Shiryu was aiming to pierce the threads with his right hand, the force at which he was moving and Hikuta was thrown, caused his hand to pierce right through her chest causing crimson tears to gush everywhere.

"Hikuta..." He landed on the ground cradling the little girl with her new chest hole. "Hikuta... HIKUTA!" Now emotion was showing through in his voice. Clearly distress. He had just slain his best friend, the person he considered a little sister... and.... IT WAS ALL HIS FAULT! Resting the girl's body on the bridge he stood up tall and began to turn to face Kakuzu, however, by this point Kakuzu had already fallen from the ceiling and landed upon the bridge before the altar once more. Not only that, but using his vastly superior speed, he had closed the gap between the two of them. So just as Shiryu was weaving signs to fire a highly advanced Raiton technique at the man that had caused his little sister's death, that very man threw his hand into his back and through the rib bones right next to the vertebrae.

His life ended there soon after as the nukenin tore the beating heart out of his body. Watching the male fall forwards for a moment, he accommodated so as not to sever the heart too soon. "Hmm... You two, that was an impressive trick, however, I was too far out of your league. Oh well." After this threads encased the male's heart, he fulled extricated it from his body with a strong yank before looking down at it for a moment, "One more for me." At that moment he moved his hand with the heart to the inner side of his coat towards the right side of his chest where a long seam of stitches rested. Pulling apart the layers of flesh, he inserted the new heart into his body slowly and carefully, before removing his hand from the chest cavity and allowing the threads to seal it shut again.

After that was done, he collected the two bodies and threw them off of the side of the bridge where no one was likely to ever find them again. "Farewell."

"Ehehe, do you like it Kohaky-nii?" Her voice rang out behind him. Turning he saw her standing there swaying side to side with a bright smile on her face. "Kouhi-nee..." His eyes began to get all teary, "YOU IDIOT!" He tackle hugged the girl as he tried to suppress his sobs, "Don't scare me like that!"

"Ehehe, sorry Kohaku-nii."

Kakuzu ascended the stair case and continued to walk onward past the depreciated manor and once more into the forest. It was time for him to move on, he had already spent too much time in Mori no Kuni as it was. So perhaps it was time to return to the mercenary village and figure things out from there. Yeah, Sachi would likely need help at the tavern, and Boku would probably want to talk with him. It was settled then. Home it was.

END

Word Count: 2929