24 To Rebuild

Inside of a cave, a boy with dirty blonde hair was punching the air. As if he was playing with someone, his punches weren't fast, and neither was his movements. They were comparable to typical kids of his age. Continuing to punch the air while dodging none existent counter's the boy suddenly stopped and looked over at a black-haired boy.

"Someone Ren you should fight with me so we can get ready when Big Brother Rei gets back!" Glancing up at Seiki, Ren shook his head. "I'm already training." Looking at Seiki with a sideways expression, he walked up to him. "What do you mean you're already training? You've just been lazing around for the past few days."

Smiling at Seiki slightly, Ren replied. "Not true. I have already fought fifty thousand ninja that can fly in my mind and won each time. I bet I could beat at least one in real life now." Saying that in a joke like tone, Ren closed his eyes again going back to his imaginary training. Narrowing his eyes while staring at Ren, Seiki crossed his arms. "That's not how training works…"

"Speaking of Rei, how long has it been since he left? I began to lose track." Seiki was surprised when he heard Ren, who had just gone back to his training speak with his eyes closed. "Two weeks and three days." Listening to Ren Seiki couldn't help but get a little nervous. "He will come back right?"

Asking this question from the opposite side of the cave, Fuyumi was even more nervous than Seiki. "Of course we just got to wait. He said three weeks at max right? I bet he's just taking his time and making sure to teach that guy a lesson he won't forget!" Opening one of his eyes, Ren placed his finger on his lips.

"Seiki you have to be more quiet." Hearing Ren, Seiki was ready to refute him until all three of them suddenly heard voices. "I swear everytime I walk past here I can hear the voices of kids. Im telling you this place must be haunted." The sound of a man nearby flowed into the cave, causing for all of them to go silent.

Staring at where the entrance of the cave should be, they all almost forgot to breathe with how quiet they were being. "I think you're just going crazy there's nothing here." Their voices and footsteps slowly got louder and louder, causing Seiki to gesture to the others to hide. "Hey wait a second didn't there used to be a cave around here?"

Getting even closer to the cave entrance where the barrier is the second man spoke. "Actually ya I think its over her-" Suddenly the two men outside stopped talking. Inside the cave, the echo of a loud thud was heard by all three of them. Hearing absolute silence from outside the three of them peaked from outside of their hiding spots.

All of a sudden without warning the disguised entrance of the cave immediately came undone, and the barrier vanished. Going back behind the rocks, they were hiding behind the sound of footsteps entering the cave echoing throughout it. As those footsteps grew louder, a shadow was cast through the cave revealing someone's figure.

"Are you guys playing hide and seek or something?" And just like that, the tense atmosphere was broken. Standing up straight, the three of them looked at the cave entrance only to spot Rei, and behind him, two grown men knocked out unconscious on the ground. "Rei!" Being the first to react, Fuyumi quickly rushed him.

Getting hugged the moment, he spotted Fuyumi Rei didn't know how to react and looked up at Seiki and Ren who were breathing sighs of relief. "Just how long was I gone for?" Looking at one another, the two of them were going to answer at the same time, but Fuyumi got ahead of them. She was speaking through her wavery voice.

"Two weeks and three days! We thought you wouldn't come back." Seeing she was on the verge of crying, Rei felt guilty he really shouldn't have left them alone here as he did. Even if it were dangerous, it would have been better if he had just brought them along. Patting on her head, Rei spoke with a smile. "Well I promise I won't be leaving like that again."

Hearing him, Seiki walked up to him and asked a question while trying not to sound interested. "So… Did you get him?" Hearing Seiki everyone looked at Rei in anticipation. Hearing the question stayed quiet for a second before smirking.

"Ya hes gone." Hearing Rei the three kids felt a lot better, Orochimaru had left his mark on them mentally and knowing he was gone made them finally feel at ease.

"So what do we do now?" Now that Orochimaru was gone and Rei was back it was really up to him to decide what they should do next. Listening to them, Rei looked at the two unconscious men outside. "Well we can't stay here for much longer so the most important thing would be finding a new place to stay." Though that was a lot easier said than done.

No matter how strong Rei was, there was one fact that couldn't be avoided. He was wholly and utterly broke. He had no money to speak of meaning he couldn't afford anything. Being at a complete loss, Rei knew he did have options. He could easily steal money, but he would instead use that as a last resort.

Thinking to himself, he realized there was someone he could ask about this. 'Hey Ryujin Jakka, do you have any idea where we can stay?' Rei heard Ryujin Jakka respond. "My knowledge of this world is limited; however, I can tell there is no balance.

The dead souls of this world are loose and free to wander. If this world were properly maintained where souls could go in peace, then you would be in the place."

Narrowing his eyes in confusion, Rei barely understood what Ryujin Jakka meant, and as if sensing his confusion Ryujin Jakka continued.

"As you have stated before you have many things to learn about being a Shinigami and one of your duties is to make sure souls are properly being managed in this world. For that to be you must create a place for them and through its management it shall be your home."

Understanding what Ryujin Jakka was trying to say, Rei had to admit it sounded nice. He didn't know much about how souls worked but if he had to guess them not having a proper afterlife to go to was most likely an issue. 'Well, as great as that is, it doesn't fix my problem. I can't even find a place for us to stay let alone the billions of souls that are probably wandering around."

Responding to Rei in a neutral tone, Rei listened. "And that is why you must train yourself. With the proper focus and control one can morph Reishi. If the proper steps are taken it's even possible to turn one's Reishi into physical objects." At that moment, Rei froze in place as if a whole new world of opportunities had opened to him.

"Wait wait wait seriously? I can do that? That's amazing!" Not being able to contain himself from what he had just heard the kids were suddenly shocked by Rei's sudden burst of excitement, causing them to look at him strangely. "Uh Big Brother Rei are you ok?"

Realizing he had let his thoughts leak through his mouth Rei gained his composure still having a smile on his face. "Ya I'm fine and I also know what we're going to do." Since Ryujin Jakka said it would take both focus and control, Rei had to focus on that part first.

Once he had this creating stuff from the Reishi thing down pact, he wouldn't have to worry about much more after that. However, there was one issue that he had not addressed. As far as he was aware, Reishi wasn't found naturally in this world, and since he was the only Shinigami present here, it meant his body was the only thing composed of Reishi.

'Say does that mean i'm going to have to use my own body to build this stuff?' Getting no response Rei could already guess that meant yes. "Alright guys going on a pretty long walk so grab anything you will need." Hearing Rei, they all understood that they were probably leaving since they couldn't stay here anymore, but they did have one question.

"So where are we actually going?" Looking at Rei with a face full of interest, Fuyumi's expression changed when she heard Rei's answer. "The perfect place for something new to be built. Home." With Rei mentioning the word home Ren spoke up looking at him questionably. "By home you don't mean our home right?"

Rei nodded his head, confirming that he meant they were going back to where they had lived most of their lives. "But I thought it was destroyed. I saw it all burn when they arrived…" Everyone there had terrible memories of that place, and they had replaced good which was the exact reason why Rei wanted to build there.

"I don't plan on letting the past dictate how we live now that Orochimaru is gone. I plan on rebuilding everything from the ground up and then even better. I would rather be able to create something new out of that place then just leave it as a burnt mess for someone else to find what about you?"

Hearing Rei's reasoning, the three of them looked at each other. After thinking about it, they all agreed with Rei's take on it. "Alright well get ready but don't forget you still have to train us!" Seiki spoke to the rest of them as they all began to prepare themselves for the journey ahead.

As they did that Rei didn't waste time and began trying to practice. Ryujin Jakka explained the concept to him, and sure it sounded simple enough but so did everything else that was hard to do. He had to focus the Reishi from his body to one point and then mould into what he wanted it to be.

In the first ten minutes, he had managed to begin trying to form his Reishi into a brick. As light blue energy began taking the shape of a brick, it was only a quarter way complete before Rei felt his concentration break and the Reishi vanished going back into his body.

The amount of focus needed caused Rei to sweat as he took a deep breath. 'Looks like this is going to take a while to master.' As Rei was testing out how far he could get the three children had gotten everything they needed together. "It's been so long since we got to go outside." Walking outside, Rei reminded them to stay close.

Looking around as they walked, Rei continued to focus on trying to form his Reishi into a physical object. "What are you doing?" Focusing his attention on Rei's hand Ren was the only person not running around as they walked. Responding while keeping his focus, Rei spoke. "This is what I'm going to use to build everything."

Seeing Rei trying to form a single brick Ren gave off a sceptical look. "So you're going to build brick by brick?" Hearing Ren say that Rei's concentration faltered slightly as he gave him a sideways smile. "It's the concept that matters not the object itself. Once I can adequately form something physical out of this, then money won't even be an issue."

Hearing that Ren looked interested in the concept. "So are you gonna teach us how to do stuff like that?" Allowing for the Reishi floating above his hand to dissipate Rei looked down at Ren. "I suppose so."

Rei had never actually considered how he was going to train them. As far as he was aware, Ryujin Jakka was one of a kind meaning he couldn't give them the powers of a Shinigami in the same method he got his.

'Ryujin Jakka are there any other methods of transforming someone into a Shinigami?'