Predator vs Prey: The Black Massacre

Footsteps crept along the planes, owned by a man contemplating to himself about recent events that had transpired. Confusedly, he tried to reason out the words of the man he’d encountered and the ramifications of what he’d done by pledging allegiance. Passersby were strewn about around the general area, making their way to their own destinations. Kousei envied them. So carefree, with their families and their special little job descriptions. His fist curled, head shaken, then relaxed again.

“What’s done is done, you indecisive loon. Stop worrying about it.” he ensured himself, trying hard to accept his own advice.

Kousei knew what he had to do. Clear his head. Get some distractions going. He had now reached his destination in Kumogakure, and plenty of people were around, so maybe he could idly strike up a conversation. There was no set timeframe that he had to uphold, since the business interests of the man—or men, if it be more accurate to include everyone he had associations with—were not yet slated. Soon, just not now. He had a good while before he had to negotiate all of this and used the opportunity to its fullest. After all, even if one expects a massive headache later on, the least one can do is avoid breaking themselves up over it before they cross the bridge.

Then again, in most cases, the bridge couldn’t track you down or haunt your dreams. Nor didn’t expect anything of you. He deeply sighed.

“Yeah, just stop it. Drop the subject. Who’s around to meet with?”

He scanned around and into the distance, finding a few, though none too interesting. Then his gaze fixated on a certain someone, cocked above it a furrowed brow. It seemed as everything stop for that one second those few faces he saw soon disappeared as the bridge became lonely tree within a forest. His mind was playing tricks on him or was he just tired. But that face, that sensual face he saw... still irked him. Then it cam to him.... they all came to him. A fight was near his midst.

So it was, another day in the devil's life. Hell was his reality and flames of reality burned at the composition of the mind. Such was the life of most rogues. Every day having to deal with the ignorant beings of this Earth was a true torture. A man in black was in a dense forest of green and shadow for a simplistic assignment by the Akatsuki organization of Outlaw country. It was his order to extract data on and capture any of the possible " Jinchuriki" who might be lying around the village. Considering cloud had gained a higher population then most other villages latly, it was indeed a good possibility. Though, he detested the fact that he was the one sent. The man dressed in black would rather have justs tayed with his previous plans of taking over Konoha. Guess that plan was going to be postponed for now

The Black Hand examined every small detail of the area, making sure not to miss any data he could aquire and use for a later era. The forest was quite thick, slivers of light shining down between the trees leading to a larger gap near a broken down tree which resembled a bridge. it was linking two locations that were cutt off by a gap in the ground along that specific location. However, The Black Hand did notice another individual right at the other side of the so called " Bridge ". Zane's facial expression didn't change upon noticing this, still looking blank and void of emotion. Most would be abit discomforted by his glance, but few manage to grow used to it. His black leather jacket that attached to his body moved to the right slightly with a current of wind that moved through the area. Leaves rustled and a few trees swayed slightly from this, but it was of no importence to the scenario.

Zane Hataro steadily began walking toward the shinobi in his sights, the individual's focus still on full-alert incase the newcomer had the first strike. Upon reaching the beginning of the tree, he stopped, not stepping on it or making any contact. Opening his mouth and emitting the sound of a overly-calm voice that echoed slightly in the vastness of the forest, The Black hand asked simply. "You.....What is your name...?" He didn't bother to let his guard down while talking. the first rule of being a criminal was to always be on guard. He wasn't wearing any akatsuki cloak or a headband to represent who he really was, but anyone from the Sand Village would be able to instantly distinguish him.

Shrubs...the forest...what appeared to be the anti-thesis of the ocean and water was actually more similar to it than most would ever know. A cursor clicked an icon in a visual image that was being projected inside the man's head, the window that popped up showed a picture of a similar forest, one that resided within Kumogakure, the Land of Lightning. Another window popped up beside the first, this one depicted a shoreline of one of the beaches of Konohagakure, the Land of Fire. Each picture contained a sizable amount of text next to it. This text bore all of the man's thoughts, experiences and recorded facts about these places, just as the pictures were what his own eyes had once seen. The ocean, water in general, ebbed and flowed with time no matter where it resided. The forest, trees, it too had an ebb and a flow to it, though concealed from the lifetime of just one being. The sands changed and moved as the winds carried them from dune to dune. The man couldn't help but think he was somewhat related to the sand. Having wandered for so long, one couldn't help but think that they too were being guided by the winds that blew at their backs...

The man continued his trek throughout the forest of the Land of Lightning. After a few hours passed, filled with monotonous reviews, mental notes and interpretations of those notes, the man had seemed to come across an anomaly within the no man's land in which he traveled. A small field surrounded by small trees and shrubs had laid itself it out in front of the man's path. The man who'd adorned a cloak with the hood drawn so as to shade his face, now slowly removed his hood to get a better look at the field below. The overbearing sun beat down on his face and white-blond hair, his eyes scouring the field for anything hazardous... or interesting. The man walked another hundred yards or so to find one more obstacle in his path before he could reach the field. A cliff with a good two hundred plus drop laid at the tips of his feet, there was no way to go but down...

Drawing a large blade from what appeared to be an unknown abyss within the cloak the man preceded to step over the edge of the cliff, to any desert nomads looking it surely would've appeared to be suicide. Grasping the hilt of the blade firmly the man thrust the blade deep in the side of the cliff, dirt and gravel falling below as it was uprooted from its resting place. His fall slowed, the man now positioned his feet on the side of the cliff and slid the two hundred feet or so down the face of the earthen wall. Having upon reached the bottom, the man returned the blade into the unknown abyss that resided within the cloak and moved forward towards the field...

Moving through the small trees and shrubs that outlined the field a few hundred yards ahead of him. Already the man felt some unknown force guiding him once more, although this time...it felt much stronger than any wind. A tension hung in the air around him as if that something...or someone was going to appear from behind the next tree or shrub he walked by. Shouldering this tension the man pressed on unnerved in his determination to figure out just what would happen next. His stoic, expressionless face was only interrupted by a small gleam of curiosity that inhabited his eyes, even this gleam however, faded from time to time. Approaching the field, the man felt somewhat disappointed in what the scene before him purveyed. In a sizable field, occupied by shurubs and trees........


That's all he could really remember before he raised from his position on the tree, infront of him stood a man in what appeared to be his late twenties. He looked fit, athletic, and feminine all at the same time. The man could not help by find himself reversing a phrase in his thoughts, "Shit happens when your a ninja." Most men ran on emotion and intuition, the two most unreliable things that his mind could conjure. Kousei, men of his kind, ran on logic, rationale, and most importantly...facts. His mind had no room for right and wrong, good and evil. No, the only thing this man cared about was true versus false. What his eyes, and the truth, told him now was that there was a man, seemingly lost in thought, in a field. Seeing as Kousei had already stepped out into the open without his knowing , his presence was known, with humans, presence invited greetings, which in turn invited conversation. Kousei was not in the mood for conversation, however he was also not one to cast the first stone... A greeting would have to suffice for now, and if he couldn't steer the conversation towards a quick ending, he would manipulate it so the man would have to strike or leave. This seemed like a plausible plan of action. Approaching the young adult, who had surely by now was wondering what Kousei was doing, Kousei bowed as was customary of nobility in Kumogakure no Sato. With a strong, baritone voice, that seemed oddly distance, Kousei introduced himself when asked for his name...

"I am Kousei Hyokkori Reido, pleased to meet you..."

Zane examined the features of the other individual closly, not missing a single detail of their appearance. As the individual bowed and retorted to his question, The Black Hand just continued starring at them with the glance of a void. The shinobi went by the name " Kousei Hyokkori Reido". Since this was near the village hidden in the clouds and the fact that they acted so to a complete stranger in these parts, he concluded that they were a local resident. The akatsuki parted his lips once more and spoke in the same voice, completely unchanged in any degree. " ...Now...I have a few..questions, for you...Do you know data on.any people who may contain a Jinchuriki sealed in their body? I'm looking for them and the village near here is where I have come to look next. Depending on your answer will tell if I expand on the info."

Kousei cleared his dry throat in preparation to give a response to the stranger...how Kousei disliked the arrangement of names in the oriental culture, the first name last, and the last name first, it was one of the reasons he arranged his name, and mannerisms, in a western fashion. In the moment it took him to clear his throat, golden irises took in all of the details of the man, to see if perhaps they had crossed paths once before, or more importantly if he were of any danger. The most notable feature were his eyes, dark a soulless cold stare, these features of the his eye were ran through Kousei's database of a memory...Nothing. Kousei's distant voice now rang throughout the air within the forest field...

" A fool once said: 'It is the journey not the destination that matters' "

...A pause.

" But then again, without the destination the journey would not exist..."

Another pause between thoughts before he let his words linger in the man's thoughts. Contradictions, Paradoxes, even Oxymoron's all these things frustrated the mind. Frustration led to angst, angst led to anger, and anger...led to lashing out. Well that was the theory at least, men were keen to mind games, especially someone who was looking for a Host..he would have to wait this one out. Kousei's gaze seemed to pierce anything rooted in the physical world and see something beyond, something that was only visible to him, it made his expressionless face that much more eerie. He wondered however, how it would look to the man, would it look familiar due to the nature of his personality? or perhaps foreign, as if they've never seen the look before? Kousei pondered this a bit more before posing a question.

" So stranger, which is it you are here for? The Journey...or The Destination?" Or perhaps you believe there is something above these two things? "

Kousei's voice remained seemingly uninterested in an answer, listening to Kousei speak was like being drawn into a conversation only to be ignored...frustrating. He spoke once more...

" I suppose to ask it more directly. Why exactly are you here, in the middle of an arid forest, talking to a man whom you've seemingly deduced to be of a peculiar interest? Asking for information about Host. "

Kousei's gaze drifted upwards towards the clouds as he lost himself in thought once more. How dangerous was it, he thought, to provoke an enemy...one he has no intell on at that. What would all this provocation result in? A battle? Or perhaps simply his offsetting attitude would be cause enough for him to leave... A hand glided unnoticably beneath his cloak to rest on a small piece of cloth, stitched onto the inside of the fabric. Making one of those friendly signs which is known throughout the ninja world. If the need arise, Kousei would be prepared to fight...

The Black Hand listened to and thought about the words spoke by the individual a small distence away from himself. The question should have had an answer so obvious that it voided the question, but he guessed that it wasn't as obvious as intended. Keeping his eye on the opponent's hand as it moved inside their cloak, Zane retorted back with a simplistic answer. "I am here to find those which I had asked you of and I ask you because you were the first person I saw. It shouldn't be that hard to figure out."

Kousei only shook his head in discomfort as his hand peered from his cloak. Removing it in one glance of the eye as the hand seal he had formed earlier initialized. Pointing out his hand concentrated chakra formed around it. Chakra converges to wind and compacts around his palm, swirling violently, noticeably increasing the pressure against his skin Thrusting his palm forward at the enemy in front of him, heralded by his hand glowing with chakra, with wisps of fluctuating air.

Spoiler:

Zane Hataro continued examining the movements of his opponent, a obvious wind of pressure compacting around their fist. Wind wasn't normally visible to most individuals, but with how compacted it was and The Black Hand's own training back as a Anbu Black Op for the Village Hidden In The Sand, one would become adept to detecting such things. Clearly the shinobi wanted to engage in combat. Zane sighed to himself, dissapointed that the opponent wouldn't just answer his question and persisted to win a fight where the odds were ten too one. A moment before the concentrated blast would have hit originally, The Black Hand had pressed his feet against the ground, darting in a forward up motion, moving toward the target at speeds that would make him seem like a blur to most while simultaniously reaching heights above that of the blast. Landing two feet infront of the target, Zane moved his left-hand onto the hilt of his sword that was attached to his waist while sending his right palm, made flat to distribute the force over a wider area. at the center of the target's chest with a force that couldn't even be described by human understanding, surely knocking the individual back a good distence if it hit with a possible fracture in the rib-cage. Of course, by doing this type of attack, a fraction of the attack had hit his body causing his jacket and other clothing to shred mostly and several large cutts to form over his skin showing the appearance of him being heavily damaged. However, Zane was unlike other ninja, his body was much more durable, as such, his insides remained only scratched from the blast, leaving no serious internal damage. Through this display, he not only wanted to use it as a chance to land his attack on a unsuspecting opponent, but instill a slight sense of esar with the amount of power he could withstand.

Gottcha. Kousei slightly raised his hand more, as the fluctuating winds continued their wrath. His opponent seemed to only jump over the winds at which he sent landing approximately 2 feet in front of the blast. Catching his opponent within the jutsu. He endured his mightiest jutsu and was able to send back Kousei with his palm while still in the air approaching ground. Sent flying backward Kousei transmogrified his body changing it into a gaseous state allowing the wind to blow him off into the distance. Escaping from the enemy. Kousei wasn't the one to start fights but he did love to test an opponents strength. He hoped to see this myster enemy once again.

-EXIT

( lol. I know this isn't really what you expected but i'm busy at the moment so I don't really have time for this battle. )