Dreams & Nightmares

Nighttime at Uzushiogakure was peaceful as residents slept with the noise of the ocean, soothing and relaxing their tired minds, Shinobi patrolled the rooftops and streets keeping ever vigilant for anything suspicious. As the tired minds rested, children approaching the age eligible to begin training to academy students were visited by dreams, dreams of their village standing strong and of them happy and smiling with the strength to do incredible feats.

Dreams of a tree standing towering above the clouds giving off a sense of comfort as they approached, visions of them training as slept, their strength rising higher the more they trained yet no fatigue came. Instinctive knowledge of appropriate training routines that helped and a final warning that they may never discuss this with anyone or they will be barred forever.

However, those Chunin and above were visited by another dream, one telling of the destruction of their village, the allied nations storming the beach fronts, the massacre of their fathers and mothers, lovers and friends. Blood of children spilled on the floor and finally their own death. These dreams constantly on repeat, the very details embedded into their minds, wanting to escape, cry, shout... they couldn't. A force keeping them locked in their minds, forcing them to witness their deaths, warning them that id they do nothing; this is what the future holds.

The dreams and torture continued till the break of dawn.

A yawn escaped Aiko as he stretched, feeling like he just completed the best workout of his seven years of life he began to get ready for his day, vividly remembering he wondered if he would have another dream like that anytime soon. "Okaasan morning, whats for breakfast?" His cheerful voice rang in the dining as he sat waiting for breakfast with his mum, "Aiko how was your night?" she kissed him on the head which made him frown "okaasan don't, i'm not a baby anymore".

His mum laughed as she went to get the breakfast, she was a typical housewife, while his dad was a Jonin of Uzu, "be a dear and go get your father please, he didn;t wake up when I tried and I wouldn't want the food to get cold now", sighing he stood up from his seat "ok mum, be back in a sec".

Walking towards his dads room, before he could knock his dad opened the door, he had bags under his eyes, "dad mum said breakfast is.." before he could finish his sentence his dad hugged him, murmurs of "it was all a dream" kept on being repeated as Aiko stood there awkwardly, unsure of what to do.

"Sorry about that Aiko, just had a bad dream" his dad finally let Aiko go, "a really bad dream" he whispered, smiling to himself he stepped out to join the rest if his family. Scenes like this were happening all around the village with its citizens, soon enough the Uzukage was made aware.

Spared from the nightmare as he was dealing with important issues throughout the night, Hiroko Uzumaki called a meeting of the top Jonin, currently stood at the podium in an auditorium "Through out last night, multiple people in our ranks were trapped in their dreams, they all had similar dreams and some of you here who weren't on patrol or asleep were afflicted with the same dream", to his pride they didn't flinch but he did know they felt uncomfortable about it.

"Th source of the dream is lead to be believed as a widespread genjutsu, we noticed erratic behaviours in the afflicted's chakra, as of 3:00 am we have been searching for who was responsible but we have not been able to find any leads", the unease was palatable in the room. "On the other hand a few of our children informed us that they had dreams showcasing a tree that touches the skies, those that told us about the dream and the content of said dream showed a noticeable improvement in their performances physically".

Surprise was visible this time around, "excuse me Lord Uzukage I have more to add", a Jonin from the side said, Hiroko nodded and stepped back, "as Lord Uzukage mentioned we have been plagued by dreams and nightmares, however we also noticed all those afflicted with the nightmare genjutsu were chunin and above", silence spread as the implication of that became known.

"As you may have inferred, whoever was responsible seems to have a roaster of our ranks, for what reason this was done, some believe it's a warning and others think it's an enemy attack", taking a pause he continued "as of today we are increasing patrol, this will be passed on to everyone however, discretion is advised as we don't want to make whoever is responsible aware".

As he stepped away from the podium the Uzukage once again addressed the room, "this is concerning but I hope you find whoever is responsible for this, I don't want a repeat of last night and I want whoever is responsible for this to be captured. Dismissed!"

The various Jonins started discussing among themselves as they trickled away from the room, discussing with each other and coming with their own theory, those that were asleep told those awake what the dreams were about. Soon enough around the village things returned to normal, and there was a subtle tension in the air, not something the civilians could perceive but any trained Shinobi would notice it.

Days passed as the dreams continued, as foretold those children that chose to tell others about their dreams never went back to the dreamscape, the more observant children noticed this as they saw those children grouped up together talking about what happened there and what training they went through.

When they started mentioning how they haven't been back there others started to catch on, the words told to them at the end of the dream resounded in their minds, 'never tell anyone of this'. Noticing the improvements in their abilities, even those that weren't planning on being shinobi and would never have applied to the academy saw improvement in their abilities as the days passed.

It was another story for those chunin and above, for those that went to sleep at night, they will always be inflicted by the dream of the massacre, more and more shinobi chose to stay awake and it was effecting morale. "This is worrying, still no leads?" the Uzukage asked his second in command, "none Lord Uzukage, but what we have discovered is that those children who had dreams and told us about them haven't had them ever since, they told us that they were not to tell anyone of their dreams or they will never return".

The Uzukage let at an apprehensive noise "any other thing to report?", taking a moment to compose himself the second in command replied, "we have seen a noticeable increase in performance for some of our academy students, they are the ones that haven't made mention of the dreams. It seems as if the warnings were true and there is a sort of bleed-off effect from training in the dream".

Looking at the window to his side, he took in the sigh of the village, letting out a sigh he turned his attention back to his second in command "monitor the academy students, if anything happens I want you to inform me as soon as possible", "Yes Lord Uzukage." In the span of a breath he was gone.

"What is going on? Are those dreams really what is to come?", the Uzukage himself having had the Shinobi monitor him and a handful of others as they slept in secluded rooms, was afflicted by the same dream, the sensors never noticed any other presence apart from those assigned and yet he was stiff effected.

"At least whoever they are, they seem like they're helping us in some way. What I want to know is why they don't just come out to help."

Shaking his head he went back to work, looking at the forecast he received if the rate of improvements remains the same for those observed, it was looking like they'd be ushering in more genin abled graduates at the end of the year, if they graded purely on physical ability and that's for those that are in their first year, let alone those that are in their final year at the academy.