guardian of the storm | ✓

Chapter Twenty - Malevolent Emotions

~Chapter Twenty~

The four Storm Shinobi stand in an underground cavern. Emiko and Daiki stand off to the side with shadows hiding their expressions. Ja'far stands in the center and a light sheen of sweat beads along his forehead as his nerves flare up. Nearly inaudible footsteps sound out as Winter walks in, her head held high.

She strides forward and stands in front of Ja'far, holding a book with her left hand. She reaches out her hand and he places his right hand, palm down, on the book. She states the pledge once more and Ja'far commits it to memory before repeating it.

"I, Ja'fari Fukkishimi, hereby pledge myself to the Lunar Society until the end of my days. I will use my eyes to see all that happens, my words to unravel my foes, my ears to hear every secret, my hands to destroy my enemies. I will do everything in my power to crush those that block my path. For me there is only the absolute mission, and I will forsake all ties that I must to complete our ultimate goal. I shall leave no trace behind, for I shall follow our mantra. I will leave nothing behind to show I was there.

For I am a warrior of the maelstroms, a guardian of the storms and no one can stop me now."

Silverlight forms underneath the bandages on Winter's left forearm, spiral down and across the book before creeping up onto Jafar's right forearm. His teeth grit against one another as a flash of white hot pain flares up as the society's emblem appears on his forearm. In sync the four open their mouths letting their motto tumble out of their mouths in perfect harmony. "No blood. No bone. No ash."

Winter tucks the book away and smiles with blood red lips at Ja'far. "Welcome to the club."

***

Papers were spread out along a long desk and Winter sits behind it, sorting through them with a critical eye. She set each paper in one of two piles, on significantly larger than the other. Names, dates and clans dominated all other thoughts as she searched through her archives with precision. She wasn't stupid, she had seen the way this world was turning and she wasn't about to return to the Leaf Village to tell Tsunade about her decision until she was certain the Storm Village could fend for itself.

And that included building a small army capable of going head to head with a Hidden Village.

War was inevitable and she didn't know if she was going to live through the entire thing, after all she knew that the next Great Shinobi War would start before she died. It was common sense, but unfortunately many choose to ignore that.

It was quiet in the office seeing how the other three were off scouring the corners of this world for people that had survived the massacre or had been out on missions while it happened. She knew some wouldn't accept their proposition and that was alright, all of the Lunar Society knew how to erase memories ensuring that if- more like when -the Storm Village had to get involved with war, that their entrance would be not only a surprise but an advantage to whoever they allied with.

She got up and cracked her neck, stretching as she relieved herself of the strenuous job. She glances at a paper taped onto the wall with three names one it, showing how many people each person had recruited. Emiko had already found ten, Ja'far six and Daiki... She sighed and rubbed her temples. Either he had gotten really good with words within the span of a day or he scared the shit out of the people he found.

Daiki had found thirty-one. Yep, definitely the scaring tatic.

The first arrival would be in two days giving her plenty of time to create a training regiment, figure out divisions and prepare herself for being in the spotlight. Sadly out of the four hundred papers she'd gone through none of the people where Ookami's. Sure she'd found a few descendents but they were more like her two times removed, eight cousin or some weird shit like that. Freeing her hair from the tight ponytail she had pulled it up into, she felt her hair cascade down her back to her mid thighs. She should probably cut it.