Wandering souls

For the moment even in the rain this was freedom. It had been made abundantly clear to him he was being watched for the time being but he didn't mind it much for now. They were keeping a decent distance from him so he could enjoy some private time. The air out here tasted so fresh instead of the stale air in the prison. The rain fell from so high. Had he forgotten how high the sky was? So many years in a confined space. It felt odd to be able to just up and walk in any direction. His hand reached out to touch a fern he was passing. The cold leaves to his fingers felt so soft. Droplets shaking off of it as he disturbed it. How much had he failed to hold on to? How much had he forgotten? He was aware how basic this information was to people. How little they cared for the rain. He would tilt his head back and let the water droplets hit his open mouth. Such a fresh taste from the heavens. He felt fortunate, bordering on grateful for this moment. Though he wouldn't fail to remember who had cost him so much time and comfort. He lowered his head and glanced behind himself. Somewhere around him they were watching. He could detect them if he tried but they would know. For now he continued on the path to home. Let them watch for now. Hopefully they would catch a cold in this downpour.

Amidst his dreams he had dreamed of home many times. Sometimes of his fathers strict hand and others of the servants he tormented. So often though it was of the simple luxuries. Silk sheets on his bed. A silver knife he had stolen from his fathers desk. More of a letter opener really. Now he stood in front of the main gate. Long growths over the fence of vines and other plants gave it the impression of an abandoned home and for so long it had been. The gate itself was laying on the ground to the side. Ripped off its hinges and rusted now. The path was covered in knee length grass now. His prison jumper stood stark orange against the dark plant life. He would sigh and move up the path anyway. They would call him monster but his name would be iconic again. He would conquer his home first. Then onto other objectives. Slowly though. He musn't rush things in fear of returning to that place. At a slow walk he moved through the gate. As soon as he did a wild dog rushed out of the side yard. Out of what once was mothers greenery. The beast began barking almost as if Five had trespassed on its turf. Without giving it a glance Five would allow a moment of irritation to flood his chakra. His aura pulsed out from him and the beast immediately felt it. If it continued to rush this man a terrible death awaited. Quickly it turned tail with a yip and ran back into the shelter of the green house. To be dealt with later.

For now Five would move up the creaking porch to the broken open double doors that let one into the entry way. He would step through as leaves stirred. He remembered the lay out now. His room was up the stairs to the right. However for now it was clear the place had been ransacked. No furniture remained, no drapes, He moved to the kitchen to find every plate, cup and fork had been taken. Even the pots. He would reach under the sink and smile as his fingers touched a handle. Slowly he would draw out the old silver letter opener. Still as sharp as he left it. Still it was much too dark in here. His hand would shift over to flick on the lights and too his surprise they flickered to life. He would smile as water continued to drip off of him. Even as he moved upstairs the droplets left a path in the old dust wherever he went. Still he found his way to his room. Finding the door still locked after all this time. So they hadn't gotten that far. He would tap the key hole three times with varying chakra before it swung open for him. He felt drained after so little. Perhaps he needed to flex his chakra stores some now. Regain his old strength. For now though the doorway would swing open to reveal a room not yet ravaged by time.

He would move into the room and admire the wardrobe, the dresser, the desk and oh the lovely silk covered canopy bed with purple theme. He would walk passed it all to the personal bathroom. At first testing to see if the shower even still functioned or if that too failed. In no time hot water began to fill the room with steam. He would breath a feeling of relaxation before he began to shave and cut his hair using the letter opener. It took time but he didn't mind the pain. Soon hair littered the sink and he himself was in the shower. Enjoying the hot spray cleaning off years of prison mess. He showered there for the better part of an hour before finally emerging. His purple hair slicked back now and his face clean shaven. He collected the letter opener on his way back into his room. Keeping the blade on himself. For now he entered his wardrobe and collected a pair of black slacks. Slipping those on he found a black turtle neck and put that on as well. Dressed now he found his old shinobi boots and put those on as well. So sturdy and firm. He would smile as he went and sat on his silk bed. What to do first? Food perhaps, then onto whoever had robbed his house. Oh they would regret such a decision. A simple cold fury stirred within him.

Emiki had gotten into the middle of her weekly ~50k run around the islands. No real set route as much as an exploratory meandering while pushing the limits of her body. Always trying to reach new levels of speed in her search to be the fastest ninja in the world. When she noticed a strange ninja wandering into an old dilapidated building.

Emiki's curiosity got the better of her as she a few dozen feet above tree levels, silently laughing at gravity for failing to drag her down like the chump it was. She lowered her self until she was trotting into the house with the aire of a person with no clue on what the word subtly means, "Hello orange stranger! Emiki graces you with her presence! But Emiki is curious why you would walk into a place like this? Are you looking for ghosts? A creepy house like this clearly has ghosts." Emiki crowed and babbled in lieu of a proper introduction.

She would rest her hands on her hips, chest puffed out wide, and an amused smile painted on her face as she waited for a response.

Five would give pause as someone came clogging along behind him. His purple eyes turned to stare at her with little amusement in them. Those watching him wouldn't be so clumsy. He couldn't detect them without using his bloodline. This one appeared to be a taller girl built with some sturdy muscles. If anything he would say she had the body of a weight lifter. Likely a purely physical being. He would listen to her words as she spoke so abruptly. Like a stone tossed into a pond she seemed to simply exude herself in his old home. Stomping in and spreading more mud than he had and referring to him by the color of his prison jumpsuit, He felt violence welling within him but instead he thought of a fun game. She spoke of ghosts like she was not yet haunted by them. This stranger who had entered his home. Five wouldn't fully turn to her but instead a small smile would play on his face. The dust stirred at his feet as he felt for the chakra that he hadn't flexed in so long. It felt weak and difficult to manage but still he would speak as he gathered it.

"This place was once my home. A long time ago my family had it built here but I have been away so long. It has fallen to such things as thieves and the like. Though some still haunt here I am sure."

His right hand would reach out to stroke the old wallpaper. Leaving trails of dust in it as he did so. However as soon as he did in her eyes if she watched him touch it the walls would seem to suddenly have shifting faces as if they were trying to push their way out of the wall. Hands stretching with open mouths in silent screams. Five would smile and let his hand drop as he turned fully to her now. The faceless ones fading back into the walls as he spoke again. "My name is Yusei Five. Tell me, do you know who has stolen from my temple? I would like a word with them. For that matter what should I call you?" He would smile that sweet and kind smile again but his aura pulsed from him. He was dangerous. Like he thirsted to wreak havoc on her and anyone nearby. Yet it didn't meet his eyes.

Emiki tilted her head as she heard the stranger explain how this was his family's home and that things probably did haunt the place. As he placed his hand on the wall faces and hands appeared, silent screams that promised dark things.

Yelping she resorted to Gentle Step to keep off the presumably haunted ground as she hopped up in down squirming as she did her best to avoid the ground, "Oh woe-ez me! Now I got dead people cuties from touching their dead people ghost dust on me!"

She'd vaguely be paying attention to Five introducing himself, and like the minor attention span she had would attest, had forgotten why she was freaking out in the first place as newest thing to grab her attention came out. "Emiki apologizes Mr. Five, but this is clearly a house ... or it used to be a house not a temple." Emiki would say consolidatingly.

She'd tilt her head at the rest of the question, "To be honest Emiki rarely come by this way as Emiki runs across the Land of Water, but if you find out a who, Emiki can catch them. Emiki is the fastest ninja in all of Kirigakure ... to my knowledge. As for my name, it is Emiki, Emiki Hiyama! The Speedster of Kiri, the pleasure of my acquaintance is yours I'm sure."

[2]

Five would turn his attention in a calm demeanor to the girl now as she did something rather interesting to him. She began to nearly float above the ground. Touching down for mere moments before lifting off again. She mentioned dead people cooties from the dust and he nearly snorted. Seeing as dust was partially made up of dead skin cells she wasn't even in the wrong there. The illusion had worked as it was intended for the moment though. After all he had intended to throw her off and cause him to have the upper hand in the conversation. It had worked but rather too well it seemed. She gave off no hint of being a threat. In fact she acted the part of the fool rather well. Though her speed was impressive. Each time her toes touched the ground she would flex and be moving rapidly again. A unique talent of course. One he could utilize if he were to pursue that course. For now though he was unarmed against a faster opponent that seemed to have a fairly fragile attention span. A disadvantage and an advantage if he was forced to pursue that route. Instead he would take a patient breath and reply to her.

"A man's home is his temple. He must always treat it as such. Mine has been ransacked while I was away and I will find those responsible."

She replied and introduced herself in a third person fashion which he found odd but could choose not to mind for the time being. Instead he would move as she spoke paying her little attention as he flicked on a switch and the lights flickered on. Cobwebs hanging from them as a couple spiders scurried away from a light source they had never seen before. Pests but useful ones. He would listen as she made a bold claim to be the fastest in all of Kiri. Perhaps she had something there but he wouldn't know by now. He had never been near the fastest before. That technique she had shown likely helped with that along with her clearly superior physical build. He would bring his hand up to brush off a picture of a clearly younger looking version of himself in full shinobi gear. Back when he was the white rabbit. Ahh old memories. Still he would speak over his shoulder to her as he admired his younger features.

"An impressive claim young Emiki. Tell me what rank are you? Oh and could I borrow a blade?" He would hold out his right hand expectantly.

Emiki nodded at the explanation that a man's home was his temple. In a way it reflected her own views on her body, but sadly she didn't have the first idea on where to look for those responsible. "Emiki is sorry, but she has no idea on whom broke into your home. Emiki rarely runs by this way on her 50k runs."

Emiki watched with a small cringe as the spiders fled from the onslaught of light before Five polished a picture showing a much younger version of himself in Shinobi gear. When he turned around and asked about her Rank and if she had a blade for him Emiki gave a sheepish chuckle, "Emiki is sorry, but Emiki has been too broke to upgrade Emiki's gear with all the money Emiki puts into buying enough food to maintain her body. I've been resorting to bum rushing people at insane speeds for others to take care of while they are sent flying or until Emiki can steal a blade to use with Emiki's insane speeds to rush and slash like a wind of death.

"As for rank, Emiki is sadly a genin."

[3]

Five was rather disappointed by the mention of her not having seen anything. Yet her next mention of a fifty kilometer run was rather interesting. Most of the scouts who had delivered intel to him hadn't covered that much ground. Truth be told it was an impressive feat and highly valuable. He would be careful to keep his expression from showing anything of interest in the sort though. She seemed nearly innocent in her mannerism even if she was a tad off from the norm. Eccentric would be the word that came to mind. For now he would sigh and move to get a better view of the reflection of himself in the mirror. He would pause a moment before activating a single finger of chakra scalpel. It took less chakra of course but at the very least his hands were still very precise. Slowly his finger would move down his face and shave away and facial hair he had. It was too dangerous to do better than a five o'clock shadow though. He didn't want to rip off his own face after all. This was only temporary until he got a real razor. Though a couple of things did cross his mind while he pretended to not show interest.

She mentioned having no money and of still being a genin. Ah yes, it was unlikely that anyone would be above a chunnin and not have real blood on their hands. This one certainly didn't act like she had ever been truly traumatized. He would finish up his shave before letting the scalpel jutsu go. He used his hands to slick his hair back now before rubbing anything left over hair wise off his chin. The scalpel as sharp as it was didn't eliminate most of the hair which remained piled up at his feet. Years of not having shaved and now his face felt so bare and cold. "A genin you say? Well there is so much to learn than. Things I could teach you my dear young lady. As for gear, well I could give you say....ten thousand ryo. However nothing comes for free of course. This money would be yours on two conditions. The first is that you train under me and obey. You will be tested both physically and mentally. Taught to grasp the fragility of life and to extinguish it when needed. The second condition is far simpler. I want you to write me a report of everything you learn every month no matter how small the detail. Could you do that little Emiki?"

Emiki's less than stellar attention span was about to wander yet again when she saw the blade of chakra form around his finger. Letting out a childlike squee of excitement, "EEEEEEE! That is an adorable finger blade! Do you think I could make one with my Ninjutsu talents? Albeit, my list of Jutsu is mostly geared towards moving very, very fast, and moving in true 3d space rather than 2 dimensional running that most do. 2d is boring, but I want to some day run in 5d. That would be the best! Go so fast I can kill time. like everyone accuses me of doing just because I get bored with everyone being so slow."

And she did, quite often. Others wanted her to focus on boring things, and to wait up for others. But Emiki was like a shark in some ways. Always needing to be moving, a creature of constant action. Her teachers at The HIVE said she had ADD, bit to Emiki all that meant was she had a different type of focus than those around her, and with how slow the world moved, they couldn't really blame her for not getting stimulated by their slow scale of time.

She would listen long enough for him to explain before growing bored at having to wait and would blitz around the room examining everything around her with a boundless curiosity.

As he finished wrapping up him cleaning himself up, Emiki listened to his deal and gave an interested hum as she thought it over for a second before nodding enthusiastically, "That sounds like a fair deal, Emiki can buy some weapons that hopefully will stop shattering at the force of her movements, and can get some additional training. Although ... Emiki can say Emiki will try her best when it comes to the mental side of things, or obeying 1,000% of the time Emiki's not the brightest bulb in the bunch. Emiki tends to be more of a creature of action and raw, unadulterated speed. It was her biggest source of problems at The HIVE. A private academy, dedicated to turning problem children into well behaved killing machines to fight the Society.

"Emiki was great at the killing bit, even a few days ago Emiki was in a mission were Emiki personally murdered over 100 people, but Emiki never did well with the more mental aspects of training, and had a habit of ignoring orders that revolved around her being slow, or not acting. That whole 'patience is a virtue' talk was wasted on Emiki. Emiki does her best work when given a target, told a simple goal to do, then being allowed to run up to 120 meters per second to do Emiki's thing.

"Although Emiki thinks Emiki can make an honest attempt to obey."

4

Five would hum to himself slightly as she went on for a moment. A tirade of words spilling out of her like the water gates had been opened and the words could not stop. Normally he might have been annoyed had it not been for the lack of human contact for so long. Still a few key points didn't fail to land upon his ears. She moved differently than others did for one. If she could be focused the would be more than a blur but a honed one. That distracted personality would need to be addressed in time but for now that much energy would do them good. Perhaps some stealth training would be fitting to handle that. Obviously she was a specialist with that speed. He would smile to himself as she continued to speak and he moved idly to the kitchen. A clay cup still sitting next to the sink was actually fairly clean. No mold just dust. He would turn the sink on and idly rinse the cup out. Remaining quiet a moment after she finished speaking. This was a simple thing really. He had listened to her. People lost her interest quickly. If she was invested in being his student she would suffer patience with him.

He would fill the cup with water from the sink before drinking it. Ahh the taste was so much better. Next he would fill it again and hold the cup out to her. But instead of waiting for her to collect the beverage he would let the cup go. She was across the room and he wanted to test both her reaction time and her speed. If she was all bluster the cup would shatter. If even half of it was true the cup would never reach the ground. He would watch all the same. Purple eyes always studying her. He was a well of intelligence and he was already seeing in what ways he needed to test her and expand on her abilities. The fact that she had so little trouble killing was ideal as well. He wouldn't train pacifists. Anyone that trained under him trained to kill. That was his way. Still regardless of the result he would speak. "With me patience is something you must learn. Information is our weapon. Our shield. The more we know the more we can prepare and counter. Even a lightning bolt can be countered if one knows it is coming. One day if you simply rush into a situation you may find yourself quickly in a grave. Tell me child, do you think it impossible for me to prevent you from leaving? You're speed is far superior to mine yet I am a trickster."

Emiki waited for almost a second while Five made a cup of water before popping over to watch the act of pouring water before he took a long draft of the clear fluid. As the cup he made for her fell, making a half ram, and Body Flickered to the cup, the cup barely fell a few inches before she caught it and sipped it as she listened to the challenge, which brought a beautific smile upon her face.

"Unnngh! Why is everyone always talking about that patience thing. You can't steal, eat, or kill it. But ... money's money? Emiki can attempt to learn patience, and Emiki can at least agree on the importance of having knowledge.  That is something Emiki can agree on. There is little more important thing than having a good plan for an attack. As for me leaving here? Emiki is fast enough to leave easily if we are playing a game. But if it is a stay and get money or leave and get none. Then that is not a fun game.

"As for running into a grave. I guess I'll just need to get fast enough to outrun death. Everything can be outrun if your fast enough. Such as time, light, patience, and luck "

Emiki would chuckle as she would wait for the terms of the challenge. She always loved a good challenge, especially if the win was free food, a favor, or something else that amused her.

[5]

"The world is rarely full of amusement and games. With me you will find that these dark places are where we will thrive. There is a chance you won't survive but if you do, you won't just outrun death. You will become it. Now kindly see yourself out. Meet me in the market at noon in two days and we will buy you supplies."

A simple thing really. Buying some genin a few weapons. If she did not forget her report it would be of some worth to him even if she only reported what she found to be random thoughts. All information had value and he would look through all of it. Something overlooked from one point of view could easily be connected to information from another source. He would let her do what she would with the cup of liquid she almost immediately caught before showing her to the door. How quaint a girl but preferably in small dosages. Naive as well which meant he could navigate her as he liked should he do so carefully. With that level of speed though he had several uses for her. As she would leave his eyes would scan the tree line. Thinking perhaps he caught a glimpse of something there. Still he would close the doors once she was away. Alone in his home at last. He would breath in a sigh of relief and lean back against a wall.

How sweet it was to be back in his own home. To relax there and be at ease. No answering to anyone about when to pee or eat. Simply allowed his own freedoms. Sure he would have a student now but for the moment he had peace.

(6)
Exit thread

Emiki would hear Five giving her the hype on working for him, but she didn't mind. In fact that she was getting paid to basically give any rumor, or random thing she heard that caught her ear. It was objectively easy money.

She didn't waste time as she grabbed her money a joyous cackle leaving her as she ran above the tree lines to continue her journey. And after her workout she'd be free to get started on something that would be the starting point of an armor that would protect her as she worked towards violating time and space with her speed.

[6] Exit.

Emiki gave a chuckle and a crusty before taking the money and running with it. She had 25 k to go, and she had ideas on how to spend her money. Going to a visiting Tengi