Boring chapter. =/
Riku?s eyes opened in a flash, wide at first, and then seeming to squint. He rolled out of the bed he was laying in and looked around the wide room. It was pretty basic, made of wood, candles placed in various locations, and the bed he was in was all he could see. Besides that, it was a closed room, no windows, and if there was a door, it was blending in with the wall, which seemed a more than a little dumb to him.
The wall suddenly pushed out and a man came in. The wind from outside seemed to ruffle his already unkempt dark brown hair. The man seemed to be in his twenties... maybe early thirties. He wore a white cloak that went down to about waste level, and below it normal pants, well normal for shinobi anyway.
Riku immediately turned to face the man.
?Calm down, I?m not trying to hurt you,? Shinru said, calmly, closing the door as he spoke, ?I want to talk to you.?
Riku started to sit down, with caution of course, but something about him made him assured, it seemed as though he recognized him, ?Ok, so talk.?
?Well, I want to help you, we both have a common goal, getting rid of Akatsuki, and you could help me in that.?
?And how do I know you have no other motives??
?Well actually, I do have other motives, but these motives will be an act of mutualism, helping both you and I.?
?So what makes you think that I?ll go through with your motives?? the boy questioned, almost spitting out the word ?motives? rather than speaking it, ?How do I know that these won?t come back to harm me in the future??
?Well, let?s see, here are your choices. One, you can go back to the tundra. I do hope that you realized how lucky you were that you survived the first time, and that it won?t happen again. Two, you can go east or west, both of which lead to the ocean, where you?ll be eaten by a shark or something, although I do hear that Kisame is still alive, maybe you?ll find him roaming in the ocean, a grim fate as well. Three, you could go south, once Akatsuki finds out you left, they?ll continue searching and they?ll easily find you, or someone else will, and believe me, as much as you think you?ve mastered your ability, you?re nowhere near mastery over ice. Or four, you could stay with me, Akatsuki thinks that they know my location, but that was only a temporary place, basically a decoy. So we?ll be safe here for a number of years, you?ll be well sheltered of course. We?ll do some special training and by the time Akatsuki finds us, you?ll be powerful enough to help me take on whoever they send, or survive on your own should I die, it?s a win-win situation for you.?
?Fine, I?ll stay. So when do we get to this special training??
?Tomorrow I would presume, but we won?t get to the training your expecting for a while.?
Riku seemed more than a little puzzled, so Shinru continued, ?Well you?ll have different stages. The first stage is specific to you?the emotional stage. During you?re years in the tundra, you?ve become instable with controlling you?re emotions, and for a while, you barely had any. You claimed it to be a good thing that you?re emotions were gone, but before I can teach you how to fight, you must learn when to fight. A warrior isn?t a warrior unless he can assume the right time to draw his blade. Next is the mental phase. This goes together with the emotional state. As you should know, those who know ice also know water and wind, it being a branch of the two elements, and both of those elements require a calm state of mind, something that you?ve proven to be absent of at the time. And therefore, ice would require an even higher state of mind, this may take a while for you. Afterwards would be the meditative phase. A state for all training, at that time, you will become more in commune with your known elements and possibly find your unknown powers. This is the shortest part of the training. And finally, there is the physical phase, where you put together all of the said stages of training in order to make yourself the perfect fighter. A ninja who knows when to do battle, who to clash with, and how to do it.?
Riku still seemed lost, as though he hadn?t even been paying attention, Shinru continued to talk, more than a little annoyed, ?You know what, we?ll just talk about it as we go,? Then he took on a more grim tone ?But the one thing that you need to know right now, it that if you?re scared of anything, be it pain or fear itself, then you should leave, right now.
Because with the training you?re going through, you?ll be in a lot of pain, and you just may die.? He said with a smile at the end, and afterwards started to walk out and added in the light tone he had been using before, ?Sleep tight kid.?
~
The leader of Akatsuki sat in his chair, rolling his fingers across the stone chair. His head was covered by the hood of his long, red and black cloak, allowing only his dark red, and ominous eyes.
?So you didn?t capture him?? Tenzu was shook by his leader?s deep, threatening voice.
Tenzu gulped and replied, ?No, but??
His boss cut him off with a loud roar and smashed his fist against the large chair he sat in, ?I don?t want to hear your excuses!?
?Wait, I have a reason, not an excuse, a proposition if you will.?
?Fine,? he closed his eyes, and then opened them again and lunged forward sitting on the tip of his chair, revealing a snout filled with rows of sharp teeth that clanged together like metal each time they closed, ?But if it?s not to my liking, you?ll find your blood scattered across this very room in seconds!?
Tenzu held up his hand, the one that hadn?t been mutated, and opened his palm trying to calm the man down, ?Trust me, you?ll love it. Shinru took the boy, and it?s pretty obvious that he?s going to train him in ice and all of that good stuff...?
Leaning back into his chair, his master seemed to start smiling, ?Go on.?
Tenzu continued to talk, deciding to go straight to the point, an odd tactic for him, ?Well, maybe he could join Akatsuki, I checked where I thought they were, but Shinru must have changed his location, meaning that it?ll be some time before we can find them, and even longer before we devise a plan to get to them. So instead of just taking what we need from the boy and killing him, why don?t we allow him to join? He may not want to, but we won?t give him a choice anyway. So how about it??
?I like it, but I think I have a better idea...?
Tenzu?s curiosity was piqued, only something that a true leader could do.
And So It Begins...
Riku?s eyes opened in a flash, wide at first, and then seeming to squint. He rolled out of the bed he was laying in and looked around the wide room. It was pretty basic, made of wood, candles placed in various locations, and the bed he was in was all he could see. Besides that, it was a closed room, no windows, and if there was a door, it was blending in with the wall, which seemed a more than a little dumb to him.
The wall suddenly pushed out and a man came in. The wind from outside seemed to ruffle his already unkempt dark brown hair. The man seemed to be in his twenties... maybe early thirties. He wore a white cloak that went down to about waste level, and below it normal pants, well normal for shinobi anyway.
Riku immediately turned to face the man.
?Calm down, I?m not trying to hurt you,? Shinru said, calmly, closing the door as he spoke, ?I want to talk to you.?
Riku started to sit down, with caution of course, but something about him made him assured, it seemed as though he recognized him, ?Ok, so talk.?
?Well, I want to help you, we both have a common goal, getting rid of Akatsuki, and you could help me in that.?
?And how do I know you have no other motives??
?Well actually, I do have other motives, but these motives will be an act of mutualism, helping both you and I.?
?So what makes you think that I?ll go through with your motives?? the boy questioned, almost spitting out the word ?motives? rather than speaking it, ?How do I know that these won?t come back to harm me in the future??
?Well, let?s see, here are your choices. One, you can go back to the tundra. I do hope that you realized how lucky you were that you survived the first time, and that it won?t happen again. Two, you can go east or west, both of which lead to the ocean, where you?ll be eaten by a shark or something, although I do hear that Kisame is still alive, maybe you?ll find him roaming in the ocean, a grim fate as well. Three, you could go south, once Akatsuki finds out you left, they?ll continue searching and they?ll easily find you, or someone else will, and believe me, as much as you think you?ve mastered your ability, you?re nowhere near mastery over ice. Or four, you could stay with me, Akatsuki thinks that they know my location, but that was only a temporary place, basically a decoy. So we?ll be safe here for a number of years, you?ll be well sheltered of course. We?ll do some special training and by the time Akatsuki finds us, you?ll be powerful enough to help me take on whoever they send, or survive on your own should I die, it?s a win-win situation for you.?
?Fine, I?ll stay. So when do we get to this special training??
?Tomorrow I would presume, but we won?t get to the training your expecting for a while.?
Riku seemed more than a little puzzled, so Shinru continued, ?Well you?ll have different stages. The first stage is specific to you?the emotional stage. During you?re years in the tundra, you?ve become instable with controlling you?re emotions, and for a while, you barely had any. You claimed it to be a good thing that you?re emotions were gone, but before I can teach you how to fight, you must learn when to fight. A warrior isn?t a warrior unless he can assume the right time to draw his blade. Next is the mental phase. This goes together with the emotional state. As you should know, those who know ice also know water and wind, it being a branch of the two elements, and both of those elements require a calm state of mind, something that you?ve proven to be absent of at the time. And therefore, ice would require an even higher state of mind, this may take a while for you. Afterwards would be the meditative phase. A state for all training, at that time, you will become more in commune with your known elements and possibly find your unknown powers. This is the shortest part of the training. And finally, there is the physical phase, where you put together all of the said stages of training in order to make yourself the perfect fighter. A ninja who knows when to do battle, who to clash with, and how to do it.?
Riku still seemed lost, as though he hadn?t even been paying attention, Shinru continued to talk, more than a little annoyed, ?You know what, we?ll just talk about it as we go,? Then he took on a more grim tone ?But the one thing that you need to know right now, it that if you?re scared of anything, be it pain or fear itself, then you should leave, right now.
Because with the training you?re going through, you?ll be in a lot of pain, and you just may die.? He said with a smile at the end, and afterwards started to walk out and added in the light tone he had been using before, ?Sleep tight kid.?
~
The leader of Akatsuki sat in his chair, rolling his fingers across the stone chair. His head was covered by the hood of his long, red and black cloak, allowing only his dark red, and ominous eyes.
?So you didn?t capture him?? Tenzu was shook by his leader?s deep, threatening voice.
Tenzu gulped and replied, ?No, but??
His boss cut him off with a loud roar and smashed his fist against the large chair he sat in, ?I don?t want to hear your excuses!?
?Wait, I have a reason, not an excuse, a proposition if you will.?
?Fine,? he closed his eyes, and then opened them again and lunged forward sitting on the tip of his chair, revealing a snout filled with rows of sharp teeth that clanged together like metal each time they closed, ?But if it?s not to my liking, you?ll find your blood scattered across this very room in seconds!?
Tenzu held up his hand, the one that hadn?t been mutated, and opened his palm trying to calm the man down, ?Trust me, you?ll love it. Shinru took the boy, and it?s pretty obvious that he?s going to train him in ice and all of that good stuff...?
Leaning back into his chair, his master seemed to start smiling, ?Go on.?
Tenzu continued to talk, deciding to go straight to the point, an odd tactic for him, ?Well, maybe he could join Akatsuki, I checked where I thought they were, but Shinru must have changed his location, meaning that it?ll be some time before we can find them, and even longer before we devise a plan to get to them. So instead of just taking what we need from the boy and killing him, why don?t we allow him to join? He may not want to, but we won?t give him a choice anyway. So how about it??
?I like it, but I think I have a better idea...?
Tenzu?s curiosity was piqued, only something that a true leader could do.
