Hopefully, from herein it'll be epic. o.o
“And... it just says my name?” Riku asked skeptically.
Kakashi had come to him during the morning, though they were only a while away from each other, being that Kakashi had given them all a temporary place in his mansion, stating that he had “more room than he knew what to do with anyway.” Kakashi and Riku stood at Riku’s door now, Kakashi still outside of it and having told, or moreso asked, Riku about a letter.
“See for yourself,” Kakashi said, digging his a pocket in his pants and then producing out of it a rolled up paper.
Riku examined it, and, just as Kakashi said, it only said his name on one side, nothing else. It was on a tan parchment, and written in practically perfect writing, something that Riku had never seen until this day. It wasn’t handwritten, it couldn’t have been.
Riku looked up, “Are you sure that you didn’t leave any other pieces of paper in the case that the bird had?”
Kakashi shook his head, “No, that’s all the bird had.”
“Then maybe the bird... I dunno... dropped another paper on the way?” Riku asked hopefully.
“Maybe, but probably not. And even if it did, why would they make a whole separate piece of paper and just put your name on it? No, it’s all there, there’s something else going on.”
Riku looked at the paper closely, having no way to explain any of this, and then he looked up to Kakashi, “Maybe...” and then he stopped, “I’ll come to your office if I find anything out.”
Kakashi nodded, seeing no reason for him to stay if he knew no more about this than Riku, “Fine,” he said, and then he turned to leave as Riku closed his door again.
Riku walked across his room slowly, looking at the paper as he did. Perhaps if he rearranged the letters in his name... no, that was a stupid thought. Maybe it wasn’t him at all, is there another Riku in Konoha who knows about this? That was even dumber, it was obvious that this was for him. Even if there was another Riku... No, this was about him... but why would they just write-
Suddenly, Riku’s thoughts were cut off, as a few seconds after he closed the door and walked across his room, words began to form on the paper. First there were a bunch of random letters appearing on different corners and areas on the page, and then they all converged in the center to form a jumble of words, and then the ink seemed to rearrange itself to make a complete sentence, or actually, just another word:
Riku looked around wide-eyed, frantically looking around to see if someone was messing with him, and then looked back at the paper. The words had changed themselves? What... what was this... He waited for a while longer, and the words stayed the same. Is it waiting for me to answer...? Riku wondered.
Here goes nothing, he thought, “Yes...?” he said.
A few seconds went by, and the words dispersed themselves on the paper, fading back into the parchment. More letters appeared, more than last time, and did the same, rushing along the paper until they found their position:
Riku’s eyebrow rose, as he was about to answer, though it would have been something foolish, but the words shifted again, into a new formation:
What? Riku read the line more times, growing frustrated with each time that he reread it. Was this some sort of joke? The knowledge it withholds? And was this... note... speaking to him? This was too much, he wanted to leave, but something about this note made him want to continue, it simply tapped into his intrigue. The power he holds from it... what power did he have? Soon enough, he realized that there could only be one thing that it was talking about.
Riku allowed his ice chakra to run through his body, calmly flowing through him, and then into the paper. Slowly, a blueness crept up the page, a light blue color began to freeze it, and when the parchment was covered in the light blue, transparent ice, the paper let out a bright light, as the letters moved once more:
The words moved rapidly now. Riku slowly felt like he was losing himself, and indeed he was. The words rushed and dashed across the paper, pushing into each other as if they were all small people who were late for meetings, and slowly, though surely, the words rose from the paper, until Riku found himself in a dark place. He was in the center of a dark black, swirling vortex. Letters shot around them, he could only fully see a few small ones, there was, “Train” and “Sages” and “Truth.” And as weird as these words seemed to him at this particular time, for some reason, they made some sort of sense to him subconsciously.
Abruptly, the words stopped their frantic dance, as they all came to a halt. They moved one last time after that, and came to a full stop, the words right in front of Riku, clearly in full sentences now as he sat in a cross legged position. He could see nothing past the words and the swirling darkness, but he could have sworn that as he read, he could hear the words being spoken by an otherworldly voice:
Riku’s mind raced, his heart beating many times past its normal rate. What... what was going on!? He looked around, he was still in the swirling darkness, the letter must be waiting for his answer to continue. He thought for longer. Everything that it said was true, he had always been curious about everything that it said, and he would never be able to defeat any Akatsuki member on his own in his current state, or any ninja of at least jonin rank for that matter. He was getting sick of waiting on people to appear out of the blue and rescue him just before he died. As it stood, he was a sorry excuse for a ninja, quite frankly. And what was that about them training Shinru... he hadn’t had any other sensei besides him. He thought... if Shinru had been able to trust them, then so could he. And whoever this was, to do something like... like this... they must be more than a ninja. So much more.
Riku gulped and nodded, “I wish to know more. You have my word that it will not leave my lips unless you wish it to be so,” Riku said, trying to rephrase their question and recite it as best as he could.
The letters and words swirled yet again, and Riku wasn’t as amazed this time, almost expecting that to happen. There seemed to be less words than last time:
The dark void began to swirl, not the words this time, but the entire world that he was in twisted and turned. It seemed to slowly swirl inside of itself, inside of Riku, as if all of the information he just obtained was being absorbed into his body. He could hear an ominous wind swooshing around him as it swirled, and as much as it turned, he didn’t feel the slightest amount of fear, or sickness, or any of the sort, it simply felt... natural to him.
Suddenly, the swirling stopped, the sounds quieted to nothing, only a more peaceful wind from the natural breeze of Konoha that could be heard outside of the window of his fairly elevated room. Riku looked around frantically again, and was amazed as nothing was in front of him; it was as if all of that had never happened.
Though he would never forget, how could he forget? The entire experience was nerve racking, and he had no idea what was going on. But something compelled him to follow through with it, to go along and find these... these sages, and see what they would teach him. And what was this... truth? He shook his head for a long while, his head throbbing, making him feel like he was about to vomit from some sort of migraine.
Frustration, fear, uneasiness, he felt all of these many different emotions, and hardly any of them positive. And worse of all, no one could help him. No one could come with him. He was alone in this; all over again, he was alone until he found them himself. There would be no one to comfort him, or help him get through it.
But he had to go with this, he just had to. He looked down at the only evidence that any of what had just occurred had ever happened—the piece of parchment. However, the words on it had arranged back to their first position, back into his name. Riku stared intently at it for a prolonged amount of time.
It was done, though. He had agreed, and so he would go. He folded the paper so that it fit into one of his pockets, and then stuffed it in, he then walked over to his bag and gathered his belongings. There was no reason to wait. He would tell the others that he had to go, and explain as much of it as he could without breaking his word, but he would leave now, by himself. He had to do this, for everyone’s sake. For his own, for Shinru’s, for his friends’, and... for the entire world’s sake. If Akatsuki caught him... there was no telling what would happen.
Minutes later, he slung his bag over his shoulder, and walked out of his room, more than a small amount of tears welling in his eyes, unsure of when, or if, he would see any of his friends, even the ones whom he’d just made in the village a few days ago, again.
A Message
“And... it just says my name?” Riku asked skeptically.
Kakashi had come to him during the morning, though they were only a while away from each other, being that Kakashi had given them all a temporary place in his mansion, stating that he had “more room than he knew what to do with anyway.” Kakashi and Riku stood at Riku’s door now, Kakashi still outside of it and having told, or moreso asked, Riku about a letter.
“See for yourself,” Kakashi said, digging his a pocket in his pants and then producing out of it a rolled up paper.
Riku examined it, and, just as Kakashi said, it only said his name on one side, nothing else. It was on a tan parchment, and written in practically perfect writing, something that Riku had never seen until this day. It wasn’t handwritten, it couldn’t have been.
Riku looked up, “Are you sure that you didn’t leave any other pieces of paper in the case that the bird had?”
Kakashi shook his head, “No, that’s all the bird had.”
“Then maybe the bird... I dunno... dropped another paper on the way?” Riku asked hopefully.
“Maybe, but probably not. And even if it did, why would they make a whole separate piece of paper and just put your name on it? No, it’s all there, there’s something else going on.”
Riku looked at the paper closely, having no way to explain any of this, and then he looked up to Kakashi, “Maybe...” and then he stopped, “I’ll come to your office if I find anything out.”
Kakashi nodded, seeing no reason for him to stay if he knew no more about this than Riku, “Fine,” he said, and then he turned to leave as Riku closed his door again.
Riku walked across his room slowly, looking at the paper as he did. Perhaps if he rearranged the letters in his name... no, that was a stupid thought. Maybe it wasn’t him at all, is there another Riku in Konoha who knows about this? That was even dumber, it was obvious that this was for him. Even if there was another Riku... No, this was about him... but why would they just write-
Suddenly, Riku’s thoughts were cut off, as a few seconds after he closed the door and walked across his room, words began to form on the paper. First there were a bunch of random letters appearing on different corners and areas on the page, and then they all converged in the center to form a jumble of words, and then the ink seemed to rearrange itself to make a complete sentence, or actually, just another word:
Alone?
Riku looked around wide-eyed, frantically looking around to see if someone was messing with him, and then looked back at the paper. The words had changed themselves? What... what was this... He waited for a while longer, and the words stayed the same. Is it waiting for me to answer...? Riku wondered.
Here goes nothing, he thought, “Yes...?” he said.
A few seconds went by, and the words dispersed themselves on the paper, fading back into the parchment. More letters appeared, more than last time, and did the same, rushing along the paper until they found their position:
How do I know that you are Riku?
Riku’s eyebrow rose, as he was about to answer, though it would have been something foolish, but the words shifted again, into a new formation:
Prove it to me, show me the power you hold from me
And you will gain the knowledge I withhold
And you will gain the knowledge I withhold
What? Riku read the line more times, growing frustrated with each time that he reread it. Was this some sort of joke? The knowledge it withholds? And was this... note... speaking to him? This was too much, he wanted to leave, but something about this note made him want to continue, it simply tapped into his intrigue. The power he holds from it... what power did he have? Soon enough, he realized that there could only be one thing that it was talking about.
Riku allowed his ice chakra to run through his body, calmly flowing through him, and then into the paper. Slowly, a blueness crept up the page, a light blue color began to freeze it, and when the parchment was covered in the light blue, transparent ice, the paper let out a bright light, as the letters moved once more:
Very well.
The words moved rapidly now. Riku slowly felt like he was losing himself, and indeed he was. The words rushed and dashed across the paper, pushing into each other as if they were all small people who were late for meetings, and slowly, though surely, the words rose from the paper, until Riku found himself in a dark place. He was in the center of a dark black, swirling vortex. Letters shot around them, he could only fully see a few small ones, there was, “Train” and “Sages” and “Truth.” And as weird as these words seemed to him at this particular time, for some reason, they made some sort of sense to him subconsciously.
Abruptly, the words stopped their frantic dance, as they all came to a halt. They moved one last time after that, and came to a full stop, the words right in front of Riku, clearly in full sentences now as he sat in a cross legged position. He could see nothing past the words and the swirling darkness, but he could have sworn that as he read, he could hear the words being spoken by an otherworldly voice:
We have watched you for quite some time.
Your master is a name known to us.
We all remember the days of training him.
And perhaps it is time that you followed in his steps.
And learned the truth about it all.
Do you not wonder why Akatsuki hunts you?
Or why the one you call sensei is your sensei in the first place?
If you are anything like your sensei
Then you wish to know.
Your curiosity is pouring out of you, and has been doing so,
Even before this message was sent.
And why don’t you know?
Surely you are old enough to know the truth?
And surely all are entitled to learn the truth about themselves?
You know, as well, that you are no match for the enemies you have drawn to yourself
Or the enemies that you will come to know in your future.
Or the friends who have or will become enemies
Or the enemies who will strengthen themselves and return relentlessly
And who is there to train you?
Us.
Surely by now you are curious as to what we refer to as “we” and “us?”
Whether or not you find out anymore past this.
Depends on your answer.
Will you seek us out, whoever we may be?
Or will you deny our request, and simply wish for the best?
Do we have your word that anything else that we say will not leave your lips unless we wish it to be so?
Or would you prefer to dwell in blissful unawareness?
Choose wisely.
Your master is a name known to us.
We all remember the days of training him.
And perhaps it is time that you followed in his steps.
And learned the truth about it all.
Do you not wonder why Akatsuki hunts you?
Or why the one you call sensei is your sensei in the first place?
If you are anything like your sensei
Then you wish to know.
Your curiosity is pouring out of you, and has been doing so,
Even before this message was sent.
And why don’t you know?
Surely you are old enough to know the truth?
And surely all are entitled to learn the truth about themselves?
You know, as well, that you are no match for the enemies you have drawn to yourself
Or the enemies that you will come to know in your future.
Or the friends who have or will become enemies
Or the enemies who will strengthen themselves and return relentlessly
And who is there to train you?
Us.
Surely by now you are curious as to what we refer to as “we” and “us?”
Whether or not you find out anymore past this.
Depends on your answer.
Will you seek us out, whoever we may be?
Or will you deny our request, and simply wish for the best?
Do we have your word that anything else that we say will not leave your lips unless we wish it to be so?
Or would you prefer to dwell in blissful unawareness?
Choose wisely.
Riku’s mind raced, his heart beating many times past its normal rate. What... what was going on!? He looked around, he was still in the swirling darkness, the letter must be waiting for his answer to continue. He thought for longer. Everything that it said was true, he had always been curious about everything that it said, and he would never be able to defeat any Akatsuki member on his own in his current state, or any ninja of at least jonin rank for that matter. He was getting sick of waiting on people to appear out of the blue and rescue him just before he died. As it stood, he was a sorry excuse for a ninja, quite frankly. And what was that about them training Shinru... he hadn’t had any other sensei besides him. He thought... if Shinru had been able to trust them, then so could he. And whoever this was, to do something like... like this... they must be more than a ninja. So much more.
Riku gulped and nodded, “I wish to know more. You have my word that it will not leave my lips unless you wish it to be so,” Riku said, trying to rephrase their question and recite it as best as he could.
We thought you would...
The letters and words swirled yet again, and Riku wasn’t as amazed this time, almost expecting that to happen. There seemed to be less words than last time:
We are Sages, the ultimate Sages, each of us hold knowledge that, when put
together, holds nearly everything one would wish to know.
And even more of what one needs to know, but thinks they do not.
We have only trained one other, Shinru, and so it is only fitting
That his predecessor receives the same treatment when he is unfit to do so.
You must seek us out, we will train you, and mold you into a ninja as great as your sensei
Even better, perhaps
We, ourselves, are not heavy participators in battle, only one of us would willingly do so regularly.
But training is something that none of us mind, it is a different thing in whole.
And as we said, it is time you learned the truth
Of you
Of your master
Of everything that has happened thus far, and why, and how
You will have to seek us out yourself
And only yourself, no others, as you are the only one bound by your word
The parchment will show you the way.
And when the parchment stops showing you the way to go
Simply access it the same way that you accessed this, with your unique power.
It will show you the blatant way where there seems to be a dead end.
Trust in the map, no matter where it leads you, and you will find us.
We wish you well, young warrior.
Do not keep us waiting.
And when you come, do not make us regret this offer.
together, holds nearly everything one would wish to know.
And even more of what one needs to know, but thinks they do not.
We have only trained one other, Shinru, and so it is only fitting
That his predecessor receives the same treatment when he is unfit to do so.
You must seek us out, we will train you, and mold you into a ninja as great as your sensei
Even better, perhaps
We, ourselves, are not heavy participators in battle, only one of us would willingly do so regularly.
But training is something that none of us mind, it is a different thing in whole.
And as we said, it is time you learned the truth
Of you
Of your master
Of everything that has happened thus far, and why, and how
You will have to seek us out yourself
And only yourself, no others, as you are the only one bound by your word
The parchment will show you the way.
And when the parchment stops showing you the way to go
Simply access it the same way that you accessed this, with your unique power.
It will show you the blatant way where there seems to be a dead end.
Trust in the map, no matter where it leads you, and you will find us.
We wish you well, young warrior.
Do not keep us waiting.
And when you come, do not make us regret this offer.
The dark void began to swirl, not the words this time, but the entire world that he was in twisted and turned. It seemed to slowly swirl inside of itself, inside of Riku, as if all of the information he just obtained was being absorbed into his body. He could hear an ominous wind swooshing around him as it swirled, and as much as it turned, he didn’t feel the slightest amount of fear, or sickness, or any of the sort, it simply felt... natural to him.
Suddenly, the swirling stopped, the sounds quieted to nothing, only a more peaceful wind from the natural breeze of Konoha that could be heard outside of the window of his fairly elevated room. Riku looked around frantically again, and was amazed as nothing was in front of him; it was as if all of that had never happened.
Though he would never forget, how could he forget? The entire experience was nerve racking, and he had no idea what was going on. But something compelled him to follow through with it, to go along and find these... these sages, and see what they would teach him. And what was this... truth? He shook his head for a long while, his head throbbing, making him feel like he was about to vomit from some sort of migraine.
Frustration, fear, uneasiness, he felt all of these many different emotions, and hardly any of them positive. And worse of all, no one could help him. No one could come with him. He was alone in this; all over again, he was alone until he found them himself. There would be no one to comfort him, or help him get through it.
But he had to go with this, he just had to. He looked down at the only evidence that any of what had just occurred had ever happened—the piece of parchment. However, the words on it had arranged back to their first position, back into his name. Riku stared intently at it for a prolonged amount of time.
It was done, though. He had agreed, and so he would go. He folded the paper so that it fit into one of his pockets, and then stuffed it in, he then walked over to his bag and gathered his belongings. There was no reason to wait. He would tell the others that he had to go, and explain as much of it as he could without breaking his word, but he would leave now, by himself. He had to do this, for everyone’s sake. For his own, for Shinru’s, for his friends’, and... for the entire world’s sake. If Akatsuki caught him... there was no telling what would happen.
Minutes later, he slung his bag over his shoulder, and walked out of his room, more than a small amount of tears welling in his eyes, unsure of when, or if, he would see any of his friends, even the ones whom he’d just made in the village a few days ago, again.
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