22: Black Hurricane

There was something... different in the air, Seija noticed. She had just successfully coated both her arms and shoulders in Steel Release chakra for the first time, and she was feeling pretty good about her accomplishment.

And yet even that had failed to draw her attention away from the wind's strangeness. What was going on?

'Firewall, can you identify that?'

"[I cannot.]"

'Damn...'

She couldn't relax. Couldn't sit still. She had this uncanny feeling that lasted for the entire day. Even when she turned in for her final night in this realm, she couldn't even sleep. Something was going on.

'This is happening in my own summoning realm. I may as well find out what it is.' She thought. And so she activated her Byakugan.

'The wind is twisting. And it's... changing? No, it's definitely still 'wind' but it's becoming something more out there.'

The wind picked up even more. The twisting was becoming extreme. Cylindrical. The whole ship was rattling, the ground beneath shaking from the sheer force of the gale outside. Her Byakugan could no longer pierce through the storm brewing over the coast.

Seija was beginning to worry. This was no mere weather event. Something had to be causing this.

Something alive.

'Firewall? You said that monsters won't attack me in this place, but this feels very much like an attack right now!'

*Crack!*

One of the boards of the ship outside just snapped and splintered, carried away in the wind.

"[I do not know what this is, Seija. I am sorry.]"

The rumbling grew heavier, the ship was breaking apart.

'I... I need to see it. What could cause something like this. Winds so thick that my Byakugan can't pierce them.'

She donned her mask, made sure to stick down her feet with chakra so she wouldn't be blown away by the swirling vortex outside.

She swung open the door and immediately stumbled as the air pressure pulled her out.

Her eyes went wide at the spectacle before her eyes, illuminated in the light of the moon hanging high in the sky above.

'The wind is... black...'

The wind was black.

She slowly turned towards the vortex. No...

The five towering vortexes that had formed outside her temporary home on the cliffside. There, out over the sea these vortexes of black wind swirled, sucking up water, wind and life alike.

There in the center of the storm she saw it and her heart hammered in her chest. If the Nargacuga she had met a week ago was beautiful...

This was simply awe inspiring.

The very wind itself was alive. And it was as if it lived to serve the singular being she witnessed in the distance, hovering calmly on the air currents in the center of the five vortexes.

[-Monster Species: Kushala Daora-]

[Body-type: Elder Dragon]

[Category: Elder Dragon]

[Body length including tail: 23 meters]

[Traits: steel scales, nature energy, typhoon chakra, lightning chakra, wind chakra, wind barrier, Senjutsu: Wind]

[Rideability: 0/10, this elder dragon possesses both steel scales and a barrier of wind coating its entire body. These combined with its prideful nature render it unrideable.]

[Approximate individual threat level: Low Tailed Beast]

It was a dragon.

Not a wyvern like everything else she had seen so far. Four legs. Two huge wings on its back. Long neck and tail. Sharp horns. Armored plate-like scales. Reptile. Dragon.

She felt something stir within her. She recalled that feeling from when her Steel Release awoke and felt it welling up again as she stood there, bracing herself against this magnificent storm.

As she predicted, Yin chakra would be stimulated in moments of elevated emotion. And it seemed that the dragon knew that too.

Because it remained fixated on her and watched as her hands were drawn unbidden from her sides, into a Bird seal in front of her. The words came to her mind easily as the wind and lightning within her fused together as one with her Yin and Yang.

"[Typhoon Release!]"

Instantly over half of her chakra was spent to fuel her Jutsu. A tornado of her very own rumbled into life around her, cracking the earth and creating a howling swirl of wind, with her standing at its center. It didn't quite come close to matching any one of the dragon's black vortexes, let alone all five, and yet she could feel it:

Kushala lacked the facial structure to smile. Too rigid were its scales. Too sharp were its teeth. But she knew it was happy. Joyous. Downright elated, even! It would one day have a master that it could happily serve. And it knew other Elder Dragons would serve her too once she was strong enough to summon them.

The black winds compressed and funneled inwards, coalescing beneath Kushala's wings. With a bassy, echoing *THOOM* the dragon propelled itself upwards, far above the clouds, and out of sight.

The winds died down. Seija separated her hands and her own tornado faded like it had never existed. But the cracks in the floor and the uprooted shrubs and grass nearby remained. She felt the connection to her newest Kekkei Genkai settle down right next to her Byakugan and Steel Release.

'...I need to lie down.'

And lie down she did, right there on the cliff overlooking the rising sun.

At least she had the sense to pull a sleeping bag out of her scroll before passing out on top of it.

- - - - -

Shikaku's search for either child had ended in failure. The red-haired boy, who they easily identified through the various photographs in his family home, had escaped hours before they found the bodies of the two Genin that he'd killed. And the unknown child who had once lived in the Hyuga residence had never turned up.

Shikaku didn't really mind. For him, it was more about occupying his mind with the thrill of the mystery than the actual outcome.

Today, Shikaku received news that a different Jonin would be sent to take the role of commander from him. It would take them a week to arrive. Even if an Inuzuka was being sent to the town, any scent trails from either kid would've faded just before they arrived. The heavy rainfall of this land had washed away all physical tracks like footprints, too.

Not that Shikaku was going to tell High Command about his detective work. Apparently, even a lazy Nara can go through a rebellious teenage phase.

'I'm not telling them shit. If they're gonna separate me from my teammates then I'm skipping out on all the damn paperwork I want. Not like anyone there's gonna ask anyways. What they don't know can't hurt them, and more importantly can't hurt me either!'

Shikaku actually did consider for a moment if the danger of letting Himiko Hyuga's child just get away would outway the rewards of capturing her. But the feeling he got from the woman when she protected her husband from commander Hiiro and his men made him reconsider the risks. If she was like that with just her husband, then she'd probably pull Shikaku's spine out of his ass if she found out he was the one to capture the kid and hand them over to the Hyuga Clan.

'Not worth it at all.' He decided.

'Anyways... I'd better pack my things. These idiots here will no doubt cause a lot of trouble while I'm not here to yell at them, but they'll only be without command for one week. There's no way they can ruin this entire operation in that time... Well ok there are a lot of ways that they could but it's statistically unlikely that they will. They'll probably just celebrate at that bar they took over, or something. I don't care.'

He sent word around town that he was going home and that everyone should behave until the new commander showed up. Packing away his scrolls and notes he gave one last glance to the unusual house, before heading out to the edge of town and flickering away to the east.

The Genin and even some of the Chunin left in the town, of course, did not plan on simply behaving. They were sent off to war, they were fatigued, they were mentally drained, and a most of them were bored out of their minds. There were simply too many of them for the remaining Chunins with any sense of responsibility to stop them, so in the end they were permitted to go out on a raiding spree; taking food and alcohol from the locals and partying until the sun went down and came back up again the next morning, all day, every day.

Little did Shikaku know that he had seriously dodged a number of bullets by leaving on the day that he did.

- - - - -

Himiko sighed as she stood outside the Clan compound. They had arrived over half a day ago now and she had already been forced into a meeting with the Third Hokage first thing upon arrival. The old man gave her his usual speech about having betrayed the Land of Fire by leaving and stealing those Jutsu and clan funds, which she very pointedly and loudly reminded him were either stolen in the first place in the case of the Jutsu or part of her family in the case of the money.

The old man shrank back at her accusation of Danzo's prolific Jutsu thievery. He knew it was all true. Yet he refused to face it. In the end, he left her punishment up to her Clan, which is why she was standing there now, outside the gate.

"What are you waiting for? The elders are already aware of your presence. Go in." Her brother, Hiiro, repeated.

"I know. I'm going, damn it."

Ryoku had been apprehended and already taken to a jail cell in the T&I department. Thankfully her influence with the Third Hokage had resulted in him getting a nicer cell and no torture. She had not-so-subtly threatened to go on a rampage if Ryoku was ever harmed, and nobody who knew who she was wanted to take that risk. Lord Third knew who Ryoku was of course. He had read Danzo's old, forgotten reports about trying to create an 'Ultimate Tool' and had already known about the young man since before even Himiko did.

She knew what was coming when she walked into that building. Being told to wait in the hallway until the Elders announced that they were ready to receive her was only par for the course.

'Fucking traditions... I miss Seija already...'

A servant, a woman from the branch family with a very noticeable green Seal on her forehead stepped out of the room.

"The Elders are ready for you, Lady Himiko."

"Alright." She stepped into the spacious meeting room.

There they were. Half a dozen old corpses in various states of decay. At least that's how they looked to her.

"Himiko. Sit." Her father, the current Clan Leader began.

"No. I don't think I will." She responded, not willing to quite literally place herself below them. If they were going to play the tradition card, so would she.

"Ugh! This little harlot still disobeys? I told you we should have never let her even begin to show any rebellious nature. Now look at her, actively rejecting a direct order." An elder on the left spat out. She turned towards him and smiled.

"Oh! Hello there, uncle Hisho. I see the power that went to your head still hasn't managed to give you a brain hemorrhage yet. What a shame! Maybe next year." She mocked him right back.

The old men before her looked like they were about to simultaneously self-destruct and scream at her, when her father raised his hand.

"Calm yourselves. She's just trying to taunt you. She has always been this way, much to our shame."

"And yet it made me stronger than any of you would ever become. You can't even use a D-rank Ninjutsu, let alone even use your own talents correctly. None of your eyes can see past a few hundred meters even at your age because you're obsessed with close-quarters Taijutsu." She continued, relentless.

*Sigh* "You will not stop this farce will you, daughter?"

"As long as you keep calling me that I will continue to do so. You're nothing to me, old man. Now come on! You called me here to punish me, and my husband is being held hostage in the T&I department, so tell me... What's the punishment?"

"Simple." He raised his right index finger that began to glow bright green.

She scoffed at that. "The Caged Bird? Really? You think I'll just sit still and let you draw that on me?"

"It is your punishment, child. We have permission from the Lord Hokage to carry it out. You can't hide behind him this time, Himiko. Or else your husband dies. That was the deal we made with him. If you try to resist in any way, the T&I staff will execute this... 'Ryoku' of yours." He declared.

Himiko closed her eyes and inhaled quietly. She spoke when she breathed out again.

"Fine. Do it. Fucker." She would get one last shot.

Her father smiled smugly at her and stood up from his kneeling position to finally chain her down for good. She could practically taste the satisfaction rolling off him in waves.

'Disgusting.' She narrowed her eyes and took careful aim as he stepped closer and closer.

His finger touched her forehead and she could feel that horrific Fuinjutsu start to take form.

She waited. She knew exactly how long it would take him to complete this seal.

Three seconds, the left line was drawn.

Six seconds, the right line.

Nine seconds, the 'X' in the center.

"Hah! There, daughter. Now why don't you be a good girl an-"

*Crunch*

Her hand pierced straight through his chest and crushed his heart into paste. His body dropped like a sack of bricks, utterly lifeless.

'Oh yeah~, I've been waiting to do that for so, so long...'

The other Elders screamed in a healthy mix of indignation and fear, and they immediately triggered the Seal, sending a lance of a searing pain directly into her mind. Yet, unlike any other Hyuga in history, she was a trained Medical Ninja. This level of pain was tolerable for her.

"Y-You ingrate! Do you even comprehend what you have just done?! You've murdered your own father in cold blood!" One of the elders on the right swore at her.

She gritted her teeth through the pain and grinned at them. If she were anyone else then this act would've doomed her. But she was the most powerful Hyuga in living history. They could not afford to fight her, not without losing most of their fighting force, at least. And she knew it.

"Whatever are you talking about, dear Elders? My poor father was simply inept and failed to draw the seal properly, causing my arm to move on its own. How unlucky!"

Her smile grew even wider as she saw the looks on their faces. They knew that explanation was bullshit; anyone would. But again, they couldn't do anything about it. The pain began to fade as the Seal's activation wore off.

"Lord Third may have allowed you to enact 'any punishment whatsoever' upon me, but if one of you dies in the attempt to enslave me, he's not going to intervene against one of his most valuable Jonin kunoichi. The punishment is already complete. The Seal is drawn. Dying at the hands of your own 'property' is suicide, not murder."

""You...You!"" Multiple Elders fumed at once.

"I'll be taking my leave now, you can find me in my room." And with that, she walked out, leaving the infuriated Elders behind her.

'Heh... I may hate this place but in a way... it's good to be back just to finally put that bastard down.' She mused.

- - - - -

'Ok, that's everything packed away into the scroll again! Time to head out.'

Seija furled up her scroll and slung it back over her shoulder.

She took one last look over at the beautiful landscape around her. She could always come back later, but for now there was no more time. She had to leave the town before a new Jonin commander arrived, otherwise she wouldn't be able to get away. She would find Nagato and his parents, and then-

'Wait... why is that feeling returning? The feeling of missing memories. I'd almost forgotten about it; it's been months since I last felt it!'

Her excitement at being able to get out and explore the world and train with Nagato was swiftly dampened.

'I need to go back. Now. If there's something I'm missing I need to find out what it is as soon as possible.'

Seija immediately kneeled down and ran through the hand signs in her head. And even as she weaved the last one and prepared to slam her hand down, she couldn't shake that feeling of dread.

*Poof*

And when the smoke cleared, she was kneeling in her empty basement once again.