| abstract
| - It's mid-afternoon in the dreary village of Shadow Falls, in the Land of Craters. This industrial mining and smelting town is old- its founding dating to far before the first war. Rumor has it that the process for iron production was invented here, in this backwater valley hundreds of years ago. The dozens of ancient stone furnaces adorning the windward face of the nearby mountain seem to lend credence to this belief, but have long since been abandoned in preference to more modern smelting methods. A waterfall sprays from the cliff face of the mountainside, and its waters trickle into the community in a small stream. The town gained its name, it's said, from the clear waters that well up from the heart of the mountain, and the shadow it passes through. At one time Shadow Falls was a busy, industrious community- but it has recently fallen on hard times. In the wake of the diseases that have plagued the region, it alone has seemingly been spared. Spared, but not unharmed. This small community of roughly five hundred relied almost exclusively on the outside world for food. The destruction of the Land of Craters has destroyed trade in the region, and farming has ceased. The village now hovers at the edge between desperation and hope, as food supplies dwindle. Some of the village have turned to more desperate food sources. Few pet cats and dogs remain alive, having mysteriously vanished. The mountain goats and rams of the valley have likewise been exhausted. There are rumors of cannibalism... but so far, this hasn't been proven. Some have even turned to the infamous Black Crowns that adorn the walls and streets of the village. The Black Crown is a mushroom that is uniquely adapted to Shadow Falls- the heavy minerals and metals that are drawn out of the mines of the village have thoroughly contaminated the groundwater and soil- nothing grows here except for this strange fungus. The villagers, likewise, contain unusually high levels of toxins and radioactivity. The Black Crown, however, has adapted its radioactivity as a means of producing food in the naturally dark village. The heat of its radioactivity breaks down the wood and biodegradable matter, freeing the life-giving chemicals upon which it subsists. It's this strange, sullen village that a lone ninja arrives at. A lone crow, flying overhead, trumpets his arrival in a cacophony of raucous caws. Still cushioning his broken ribs from his encounter with Kosui, Kisui had her follow him to investigate the disturbance he noticed after their fight. He makes his way through the village center and knew that the entire village looks like it was hit hard, especially around the town center. Unable to receive supplies from the outside world, the main village within the Land of Craters, Shadow Falls, had begun to fall apart. He heard rumors of the villagers resorting to cannibalism, and though this hasn't been proven, he didn't cross it from his mind. The center of town was worse than the outskirts. Seemed most of it was falling into disrepair. Kisui almost felt a sense of unease. The villagers that saw him began shutting their doors, locking the doors behind them, as if they were scared of something. "What could have caused this village to just fall apart like this?" Kosui asked, observing the village's almost barren landscape. It was like looking at something out of a bad dream. The ground was grey, the trees were dead, as if it was a village of death. An old man slowly stumbles forward from one of the buildings near the center of the village, towards the community well. "The Blight happened. A terrible disease swept across the land, infecting the people. I do not know the fate of Crater village, but without trade, our village is succumbing to starvation..." The old man is missing a leg and an arm, and his body shows clear signs of inanition. His shaking frame plods forward on a crutch made from a branch. His drawn face, sunken eyes, and distended stomach reveal a sickening revelation; he must have had to consume his limbs to survive. Noting the travelers' glances at his bandaged stumps, he shrugs. "It is better than being dead. Or at least, I hope so." His head turns back towards the sound of a child's cry, emanating from his shack of a home, before turning back to Kisui with a look of earnest desperation. "Please, sirs. I don't want much. Just a little food would do... anything you have. I'm growing weaker, and it's only a matter of time before the others begin to turn on eachother. I have to save her... my granddaughter. She's the only one I have left." Trembling, his eyes begin to water, and a single tear drips down the side of his dirty, malnourished face. Kosui begins realizing how it would be if Black Crown had begun to take over. A look of sadness over her face, she realizes if they get their way, every village would no doubt end up like this. Looking back at her supply wagon, though it had a fair share of scrolls, there was also other supplies; Food, water, mostly stuff the others packed before she did. Looking deeply at the scrolls, she grabs them and begins dousing them down with water, the writing and parchment washing away. "No more." Walking back to the wagon, she grabs a bag of supplies containing food and water. The food consists of things like fruit and vegetables with some stocks of meat that was pre-cooked before the shipment, kept in a separate package and warmed with a heat scroll inside. "There's quite a bit of food in here. The people of Jikanogakure were always good at packing supplies. Guess when you've had forty years to do it, you learn a thing or two about convenience." Kisui looks at her with surprise, noting a change within her soul. A more dominant feeling of ease was flooding over her negative emotions. He couldn't help but smile. "When did all this happen?" Kisui asks. "It must have been a few days in order to reduce the village to this level of starvation sickness." "It's been two months since the the last traveller came to our village... I think." The old man squints, as though exerting effort to remember. "I think my memory is going. Maybe it's old age, or maybe it's because I'm starving, but...," shrugging in futility, he gives up, "oh, it's nothing." His eyes flicker to the supplies being unpacked, and his gaze seems to take on a feral quality for an instant, before reverting back to a semblance of civility. Other villagers, who had been eyeing the exchange from hiding, are beginning to open their doors to get a better look at Kosui's supplies. "There should be enough for everyone here. We have population records of a good majority of the villages so we can know how much supplies is required to send into each village." Kosui explains. She sees each of the villagers slowly open their doors to inspect the supplies she sent to the village. "We have a wide variety of supplies here, from fresh grown crops to fresh cooked meat and plenty of water from our village spring." Smiling, she begins unpacking the rest of the supplies, with Kisui pitching in to help as well. "Food, they have food!" In moments, it seems like the entire village is hemming in around you. Some of the larger men begin muscling their way to the front. A child grabs a handful of produce off the table before bolting, and in a moment, the crowd is in an uproar. The mob starts shoving and pushing, and grabbing supplies by the armload. A baby falls out of a woman's arms as she's violently shoved aside by a pack of men with knives. "It's ours, ours I tell you! Back!" Letting out a sigh, Kisui stamps his foot down, a small wave of energy booming from the ground, stopping the crowd in their tracks. "That's quite enough. I understand you're all hungry, right now. But the important thing we need right now is civility. You're villagers, not savages." Walking into the crowd, Kosui notices the baby and picks up the baby, placing it into the mother's arms. "We need order in this village. So right now, groups of relatives each line up in a circle and we will give you food." Kisui explains, doing what he can to restore order to the village. Kosui begins noticing how much of a take charge man Kisui can be when things are at stake. The mother of the baby, her face overjoyed at his act of heroism, rushes forward to take her child in one hand, and tries to pull Kisui into a deep hug with the other. "Thank you, thank you so much, Kisui Iyoku..." Kisui begins to retract his arm from the child, but pauses when he realizes... his hand has gone into the baby? As though the baby is.. melting over his hand. The woman turns her face up to his, her mouth agape, her face and eyes distended as a collection of writhing leech-like barbed tentacles are undulating out of her mouth in a clustered mass. Heaving with her entire body, it's as though she's throwing up her guts, and the swarm of tentacles lash out to encompass Kisui's form. The baby as well, becomes malformed as the same barb-like lancets begin tearing their way out of its body and attempt to embed themselves in Kisui's hand. The villagers around you are likewise undergoing similar horrific transformations. The air fills with the sounds of cracking bones and rending flesh as the... things shed their human forms and commence their attack. Witnessing the events taking place, Kosui takes a kunai out of her pocket and cuts the tentacles, freeing Kisui from the creature's grasp. "What in the hell is going on?!" Kosui yells out. Pulling the tentacles off of him, Kisui could only come to one conclusion. "It must have been a genjutsu. The villagers, they were never real." Activating his Rinnegan, Kisui takes a battle stance. "If it was indeed a genjutsu, it must have been a powerful genjutsu. Not even I could have seen it. Whoever did this is a dangerous being, or creature." Hagoromo explains. Kosui, too, takes a combat stance, forming a sphere of water in her hands, ready to manipulate it at a moment's notice. As the villagers begin to attack, Kisui and Kosui stay close, with Kosui launching several jets of heavily pressurized water, piercing through the creatures. Kisui, on the other hand, summons a sword, imbued with the energy of the Deva path. Each swing against a creature sends them flying... ... or it would, if not for the creatures' amorphous forms. The pressurized water and sword alike easily slice through the creatures, but rather than being forced back or slain, their bodies divide under the assaults. Pulling themselves back together, some begin to fuse together into a larger form. It grows in size, like a giant pimple or postule. As the membranous flesh stretches, it becomes translucent, revealing its contents. Thousands of swarming insects are being budded inside this flesh-sphere. As it sprouts articulated legs and begins crawling foward, many of the semi-humanoid flesh monsters begin firing splinters of a crystalline substance at Kisui and Kosui. The dessicated shards of blood that miss their targets shatter against the ground or else become embedded in the surroundings, before exploding into small clouds of red mist. "Okay... that's unnerving." As the splinters begin firing towards Kisui and Kosui, Kisui forms a barrier, blocking the majority of the splinters while the two make a run for it. "This was no genjutsu. Those... things, they were clones. They all believed they were real, right up until their transformation." The samurai spirit explains. "Regardless, we've got to run, now." As the two run through the village, the splinters begin blasting through the buildings as if they weren't even there, sending splinters of wood and other building materials outward. Summoning a shield, Kisui begins blocking all he can, shielding Kosui from any potential impacts while the two continue to run. "How can we fight something that's amorphous in nature? Anything we throw at it will just multiply the creatures." As he speaks, the ground begins to quake as fissures start to form in the ground beneath the village. Whole buildings fall inward as the ground beneath them collapses into dozens of sinkholes. A brown mist begins to pour out of them, flooding into the air of the village in a vile fog, and the smell of methane bombards your nostrils. From the village square, is a resounding explosion as the posture ruptures. Thousands of the flesh-insects pour free of their womb, splitting into multiple clouds as they pursue their prey. As the methane begins flowing into the village, Kisui and Kosui begin coughing violently, the intense aroma hitting them like a truck. Thinking quickly, Kisui creates a barrier around his and Kosui's mouths out of Yin and Yang energy, a sort of artificial filter to filter out the methane in the air, allowing them to breathe. Kisui, having taken the largest scent of the methane, feels his body getting weak, somewhat, adding up alongside his broken ribs, but still does his best to keep Kosui protected. Kosui begins setting up water bombs made of highly acidic water, throwing them at the insects. She doesn't believe they'll stop them, but hopes it'll slow them down enough to help them escape. Ace drops in from the sky, with puppets dropping all around Kisui, Kasui and himself. Ace concentrated Yin Release Chakra in his hand before forming a vacuum sphere composed of chakra, with lowered power, sucking the methane into it, freeing his comrades lungs from the potent gas. Scanning the shinobi's bodies with his X-Ray vision, Ace can see several broken ribs. "Alpha, Treat his wounds! "Yes, Yes" they replied, with Alpha stepping over to treat Kosui wounds, applying chakra to and Nanobots into his body to help repair the damaged bones. "It won't fix them completely, but it will take so time to get you healed" she said, worried for the shinobi. "It looks like another Walking Dead / Alien's Movie out there man! What the hell are these things and what happened?" Ace questioned Kisui about the current situation. "Radiation by itself doesn't do stuff like this!" he added. "Something is in this village. Something living. That mass of tentacles and insects were once villagers, well, clones. No doubt clones of the original villagers. Anyone who was in this village before us is dead. Whatever is out there, it's in control of that thing." Kisui replies. Feeling his ribs fusing back together, Kisui walks over to Kosui, who could do nothing but gaze at the creature. "How could I even think something evil like that could have been majestic? How could I even think evil at all could have been the right thing?" She lands down on her knees, demoralized by what she had seen the villagers turn into. "If we make it out of this alive, I've got to turn my life around. I just have to." Kisui places his hands over Kosui's shoulders, hoping to comfort her. "It's ok Kosui, you didn't know... I thought all the radiation in the area was strange, but nothing could have led me to believe that a creature of was duplicating people after killing them off - hell, the way those creatures look, its almost as if the people themselves were devoured, and then the creatures simply mimicked their appearance." Ace said as he looked around the area, looking for a way out. "I'm just a clone of Ace but I can do whatever it takes to ensure the safety of you both. I originally flew over the place to scan the area for radiation, in connection to the giant fly's I have in captivity, but I got nothing until now - and those things are clearly too dangerous to get samples of. I say we go full offensive, what do you two think?" Ace asked as he looked as Kosui, feeling bad for her, though he didn't blame her for trying to help the people in need. "Alright. I'm going to link us with one of my spirits. He's been watching the battle much more carefully than we have, so he might have some ideas." Placing his hands over Ace and Kosui's foreheads, Kisui begins spiritually connecting them to the samurai spirit in order for him to give info on the creature. "Whatever this creature is, it's amorphous, meaning if you strike it down, it'll multiply. We need to form a method of attack that ensures whatever hits it destroys it down enough to where it cannot multiply. But with a creature that big, we'll need one big attack do to that." The spirit explains. Being a war veteran before his untimely death, the samurai always looks through battle with a keen eye, observing small details that even Kisui would miss. As the three speak and plan, the mist thickens, and takes on a red tint as the air becomes suffuse with blood, spores, and other microbes. Strangely, the persistent chakra constructs of Kisui and Ace's puppet begin to waver, as though the rust-red mist were diffusing the chakra. Maintaining them, it seems, will require a constant output of chakra. Kosui's acid bombs make quick work of some of the swarms, easily melting them into a green smouldering soup, but aren't able to destroy all the threats. The biting insects, which appear to be an amalgam of hornet and cockroach swarm over the three. Hundreds of the things latch onto Kisui, Kosui and Ace's clothes and attempt to sting and bite. Noticing the broken barrier, Kisui begins seeing the insects latching onto his clothes. Thinking fast, Kisui begins forming energy around his fist and slams it into the ground, a shockwave pushing the insects off of him, Ace and Kosui. "We need to move, now!" Kisui yells. While Kosui and Ace make a run for it, Kisui creates a pool of energy before following behind. This energy begins pulling in the insects thanks to its gravity and crushes them, hopefully giving them some more time to formulate another plan. Catching up with Kosui and Ace, Kisui runs alongside them. Kosui throws more acid water bombs at pursuing insects that avoided the pool to try and lessen their numbers. "They just keep coming! How many of these damn bugs are there?" Kosui yells. Ace activates his Physical Path, with his body changing into a new form. "I can attempt to slow this thing down. Go ahead and I promise I'll catch up to you two" Ace said as he knew what he had to do. With his body glowing like flames, he seemingly disappeared moving so fast and suddenly spontaneous combustion was initiated. "I'll purify this creature with my flames!" Ace said as he formed a volly of handsigns. Initiating two different techniques almost instantly, he emitted extreme heat from both hands and mouth at the creatures, causing a massive explosion.
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