guardian of the storm | ✓

Chapter Twenty-Five ~ Red Lightning

~Chapter Twenty-Five~

"Aexstra move your feet faster. Sairen pivot your hips a little more to add extra power. Kishi work on offensive strikes more often, you keep on going back to defense from habit. And Kuki...." Emiko sighs looking up at the blonde hovering in the wind, chowing down on a box of chocolate dipped donuts. "It wouldn't kill you to put stop eating for ten minutes." Eien shuffles a little as he shadows the purple haired woman holding a clipboard filled with his looping handwriting.

Eien was the one to notice the flaws, Emiko was the one to correct them.

The Storm Shinobi Force had slowly been growing over the two weeks that Winter had been absent, perhaps three hundred total now. While this was a teeny number compared to other villages, it was better than nine that had been there for a month or more. During this time period Eien could be found working until dawn discovering and creating training regiments, battle plans and new jutsus that Storm Shinobi could easily learn. It was exhausting but it was well worth it. He was slowly shaping the growing army into a well oiled machine; drilling the basics so deep into the newcomers that it became second nature.

To be honest he hardly got any sleep, but that wasn't really anything new. Back in the small hole of a village he'd moved to, Eien was used to waking up with the sun and falling asleep only when the sky turned the darkest hue of blue.

He felt his glass start to inch down the nose and he pushed them up carefully, his nose wrinkling slightly. The other "Originals" as the newcomers had started to call the original nine: Emiko, Daiki, Ja'far, Kishi, Kiri, Aexstra, Sairen, himself and Winter; were improving in leaps in bounds as he helped them cultivate their talent. But despite helping others become much more capable warriors, Eien still felt useless.

He turns his face upwards to look at the always looming Storm Barrier as calculations ran through his head. It wasn't that he couldn't really fight, after all his mother had taught him the basics before being massacred with the others, it was that he... well he wouldn't fight. Not after what happened last time.

A soft shudder racked down his spine at the thought, his turquoise eyes darkening as the memory started to crawl its way to the surface of his consciousness. He clamped down on the memory and forced it back to the dark void near the back of his mind.

But if he didn't know how to fight... how could he help in the war?

His jaw clenched and he released a breathy sigh to relax, rolling his shoulders back a little. Blinking as the world came back to focus he found Aexstra frowning, the teal haired man's face close to his. "Weren't you listening?! I need a better opponent, everyone I've been up against has been too easy to defeat."

He swallowed thickly and took a step back to create some space between them. "W-Well you see I s-set you up against people w-who will help you grow, e-even if you don't get it now this experience will be invaluable on the f-field.

A scoff escaped his lips and Aexstra rolls his eyes with annoyance. "Like you'd have any idea what it would be like to fight someone on the 'field'. All you do is stutter and take crappy notes. I don't even get why anyone calls you an Original. You're weak and hardly of use to the army! I don't get what Winter saw in you, you're a spineless idiot." Eien shrinks back wishing he could just do something, anything really. He wished he could find his voice to retort, to have a way to prove the cocky male wrong. The thing was he couldn't... he couldn't find any reason as to why the things Aexstra said weren't true.

His adam's apple bobs up and down as he struggles to form a coherent sentence. A sneer crosses Aexstra's face. "Look at you, you can't even talk now. Pa-thet-ic." He stretches the last word out, lacing each syllable with disgust.

Eien flinches back like he was struck and Kiri speaks up in her reedy voice, "Shut up Aexstra! You're just jealous that Eien's so much smarter than you, after all you only have what? Two brain cells?" Aexstra whirls towards her, easily towering over the slim girl who had landed.

"Like you're any better, you're so fragile someone could easily snap you in two! With one move I could rip one of those wings off and then you'd be useless as well." Kishi's hand strays to his sword, his eyes narrowing slightly. "And then you have that mute of a brother who thinks he's strong when in reality he's just as weak as any of you!" At this point Sairen chimes in, a sour look on her face.

"Shut the hell up brat. You think you're better than us?" Her scales shimmer dangerously in the light, her temper flaring up easily. "Your arrogance is going to get you killed one day because you'll underestimate your opponent. And I'll be there to laugh at your funeral."

Aexstra squares his shoulders and a few veins pop out against his forearms. "What was that you banshee screaming snake?" The four edge in closer together as Aexstra continues to rant about everything wrong with his peers, his face full of hostility.

***

"Should we do something?" Ja'far asks, picking at a loose thread in his kefiah. Winter tilts her head, studying the lone figure who kept away from the four, fidgeting and seeming to have an internal battle. Her lips purse softly as she leans back against a nearby tree, one foot propped a few inches off the ground against the rough bark.

"No." Winter finally decides studying Eien closer. "Let's observe for a moment longer... I think we might see something surprising in a minute or two."

***

A white hot feeling bubbled in his stomach, twisting and coiling as it came to a boil. Sweat sheened on his forehead as he struggled to remain calm as the others start shouting, hands straying towards weapons. His mouth grew thick with a faint peppery taste, his throat closing up inch by inch. He felt tendrils of heat latch onto his veins, liquid fire coursing through his body as his heart stuttered with nerves.

"Stop fighting..." He murmured softly, his voice drowned out by the furious shouts of Sairen and Aexstra. It was when he saw weapons being drawn, saw the jaw dropping of the scaled girl as she prepared to use her deadly Kekkei Genkai, realized that the brother and sister duo were tensing for battle: that he had to do something.

His eyes closed and he grasped onto that burning feeling letting it grow. It was a constant struggle as he had to make sure that his own power didn't consume him. Shallow breaths were forced out and he could feel it wanting to take over him, to root itself into his heart and eat away his soul. Bit by bit the air grew thicker, not too noticeable to anyone else but the nearby Winter whose skin prickled.

Aexstra leaned back before his muscles to tensed to lunge for Sairen, his eyes livid. He pivoted and pushed off the ground.

"STOP FIGHTING!"

A boom of thunder, a faint crackle of electricity, and a brilliant red flash of lighting struck down in between the two effectively separating them and also singing the tips of their hair and their clothes. Jaws dropped and heads slowly turned to look at Eien who still had his hands flung out, his head dipped just enough that shadows hid his eyes from view. "The more we fight, the more our teamwork will suffer. Throw aside your differences while you train, keep any personal comments to yourself and if you must say it, say it when it's appropriate..." His cheeks flush lightly when he realizes everyone is simply staring at him

"I-I mean if you w-want. It was t-totally a suggestion." He stammers out, lowering his hands to his sides carefully as the thickness of electricity drifts away to be replaced by crisp mountain air. He turned around to hurry back to his room, and in doing this, he lifted his head slightly. Winter felt her heart skip a beat, some of the others catching onto what she saw as well.

He may have only lifted his head an inch or so, but it enough that they could all see the gentle storm in his eyes. 

Hehe I am the master of plot twists. Hoped you liked this chapter :) 

QotC: Who is your favorite OC that I've made (meaning anyone I've introduced besides Winter. Like Emiko, Inazuma, the brief moments with the twins, etc.)

p.s. I'm almost finished with my drawing of Emiko... kinda scared to share it but I'm going to post it with the next chapter most likely.