Adventures Of Hanshi

Uprooting A Religon

A thick food rolled in over kumo as the sun receded beyond the horizon, the temperature fell with the sun. The homes of kumo would all begin turning out their lights , the occasional street light giving enough light to feel slightly secure in the night ; and casting just enough shadow for the predators of the knight to lurk in the alleyways searching for their next meal ticket. But our story doesn't take place in kumo but in the abandoned farm lands of kumo , most people avoided these lands and as long as you avoided the few corps that managed to somehow get off their pikes you'd be fine.

Hanshi would yawn as he stirred from his slumber the cold night air had seeped through the boards of the barn he had decided to nap in , he would stretch out on the bundle of hay he had fallen asleep on several satisfying pops would reverberate throughout his spine , neck and shoulders. "That was one hell of a nap" he would say as he stretched his arms up toward the roof of the barn as he sat up , the navy blue haired ninja had a horrible habit of sleeping in the worst places but this napping spot was strategically selected.

Members of the general populous had been disappearing near this man made atrocity and hanshi had been assigned to take care of that issue , who knows maybe the jackass's handing out missions where finally trying to get rid of him after all he had a track record of doing whatever suited his taste when it came to missions. Hanshi would cross his legs in a lotus meditation position , he would close his eyes but his right eye being hidden by an eye-patch. 'The location I need to get to is an old dilapidated mansion , rumors have it a cult that worships the tailed beast's has taken residence within and they needed to be dealt with' he would think to himself.

After his little self briefing Hanshi would climb down one of the side ladders to the floor level of the barn , he would place his foot down gently and walk softly and quietly along the barn's worn wood floor. He didn't wish to alert any of these living dead outside the barn to his presence , he would walk to the barn's door and slide it open carefully looking side to side. It was abnormally quiet, the groaning and moaning of pain and cry's for death had seemingly ceased , 'what the hell happened?' he would ask internally to no one in particular as he stepped outside the barn all the corpses  that were previously on pikes were gone.

"That's curious but i don't have time to wonder where they went" he would say as he began walking toward the more woodland area wanting to use the surrounding trees as cover , Hanshi would soon find himself in the middle of nowhere. It had been hours since he had last seen a man made structure let alone another eternally suffering corpse or person , he would soon come upon what he felt in his heart was his destined location. The only textures that could be made out surrounding the blackened scenery of the building were the even darker silhouettes of the pine tree's crowns. A big clue to weather he was in the right place was the fact there were chariots from kumogakure parked outside the rotting manner , Hanshi would notice a passed out drunk goon supposed to be standing sentry outside the building that matched the description of a known child killer and kidnapper. A torch hanging on the wall behind him giving him light.

Hanshi would gaze upon the child killer with a gleam of rage in his eye , cautious in his steps not to wake the man in his slumber.The goon would have probably not awoken even if he'd chosen to approach carelessly. Stone cold passed out from the strong liquor that lay drained on a wooden table beside him. Having little empathy for strangers to begin with and with hanshi's hate for those who hurt children his next actions became all the much easier , he would slowly reach into his weapon pouch drawing a single kunai he would tighten his grip around the cold steel as he brought it to sleeping mans throat cutting quickly and deeply slashing the mans trachea open. His eye would flick open only momentarily in his drunken stooper as he made a gurgling noise attempting to scream , Hanshi would then drive the kunai right into the side of his neck with a great amount of force ripping it out stepping back as the man slumped in his chair his terrified eyes losing life trained on hanshi.

Once the man's body stopped spasming Hanshi would prop the man's body up as if he were still sleep leaving the man's head forward to hide his slit throat , A dirty, moth-eaten piece of cloth lied nearby which he used to wrap around the man's neck like an ascot to hide the stab wound to the jugular. His attention peered towards the wooden doors of the mansion and he was carefully approaching them. However, not before extinguishing the flickering flame from the torch in the damp mud beneath his feet further disguising his attack on the miserable man who now lay dead no one would know death came for him unless they were to touch him.

The interior of the mansion was eerie. Long hallways in soft flickering candle lights hanging down from the ceiling, illuminating the rest of the interior poorly. Tall walls accompanied by countless doors. It was a bizarre feeling, judging simply from the outside the mansion did not strike him as this big. He moved soundlessly throughout the corridors of the mansion. Dust from the floor and the decoratives he passed swooped up airborne from his passing presence. Not a sound was reckoned inside, nothing.. Not even the crawling noise of pests inside the walls, which was a strange thing considering the condition of this place. Not even bugs could be seen, the only presence left of that were abandoned spider webs that had gone so thick from all the dust they'd collected. It was almost as if the life in this place had gotten sucked out. It was a palace of nothing. It was an uncomfortable feeling to remain here.

Sadly he isn't being paid to listen to his feelings he would venture further into the manner , peering into several open rooms which didn't further help his uneasiness. Many of the rooms had clothes scattered about them belonging to infants , adults and the elderly , but one big question remained at the forefront of his mind "where are the bodies.." he would mumble to himself his mouth becoming dry due to the amount of uneasiness he was feeling at the moment. After what had felt like spending an eternity inside a maze like structure with little cosmetic differences the young shinobi would stumble upon something unlike the rest of the building.

At first glance from a distance it appeared to be a massive person which immediately made him take stance ready to strike out , but in reality when he got closer it was a statue of a woman from what he could tell based off the lumps on it's chest area. His eyes would hone in on the statue noticing it was littered with chips and riddled with cracks as if on impulse he would reach out and attempt to touch the statue's leg , he would extend his hand to touch it. Though, the moment his skin softly graced the cold stone it would crumble away it started to wither.. Crumbling more accurately, like it's been turned to dust long ago and now scattering because of the wind. Only, the remains poured down like an hourglass rather than freely dancing with the wind.

Hanshi's brain couldn't formulate a proper response. There was no room for a reaction at that moment , but something was clear when that statue faded into the dust on the wind. It looked like a cloud ninja that was listed down in legend yugito kni...why was her statue here and why had it gone. In his amazement he noticed a stone set of stairs leading downwards. Like being drawn to it he didn't hesitate to descend them as he'd gotten pretty weary of the bizarre maze-like mansion above. "What the hell is going on in this place..." he would mumble to himself as he descended into the depths his heart racing , not knowing what to expect he would draw the same bloodied kunai from earlier from his weapon pouch 'how deep does this shit run' he would think to himself.

In his amazement the stairs kept on going and going and going, they seemed to be ceaseless as it took him further and further beneath the ground level. By now he must have descended several hundred of meters below. Finally though, a small clearing at the end of the last steps. A huge stone arc greeted his final steps and as he walked through what he saw made him question all of reality itself. Like stepping out into a dream, the sight he beheld left him speechless. It was like staring directly at an old ancient civilization, ruins in perfectly good shapes. Structures reaching tall inside the dungeon caverns, architecture strange to humanity. Small light sources were flickering all over the vast area, it was still very ill-lit and had a nasty gloom to it, but your eyes could still manage it once it slightly adapted to the atmosphere. Feeling incredibly lost, and severely out of what he'd like to call reality Hanshi remained curious.

Disoriented as he felt, granting his instincts and common sense decide which path to take. He didn't want to carelessly walk into the unknown territory. A pathway leading to the closest tower structure was visible and he chose to traverse it.

Crossing uneven wooden suspension bridges with careful steps, a putrid and vile stench was making its presence known with each closing gap. It was a strong sense of smell, a rotten one. It's disgusting smell almost felt corrosive inside the nostrils and it was a familiar sting. Hanshi knew this smell , most experienced shinobi knew this smell far to well. "Death.." he muttered under his breath with distaste covering his mouth with his right hand. By the time he'd reached the tower entrance the smell was so strong it could even turn the strongest of bellies soft. Silent gagging reflexes escaped him as he passed through the dry hallways. There were strange vines covering the stone walls surrounding him. hese vines unlike most he'd seen before were really anomalous. An extremely bright green stem with blood red thorns covering them. It looked both toxic and dangerous which was probably true in both cases, he didn't exactly have the desire to find out and stayed as cautious about them as he could.

At a the end of a corridor the way split into a T formation. To the left it seemed to lead out more into the open as one could tell there was more light coming in that direction, whilst the other way was dark. One could tell the outlines of shadow crawling out from the room. But that wasn't the thing that caught his attention. A stain was embedded into the ground. A dark stain, like old wine, left to dry. Although during the circumstances with the intense putrid smell, he had a pretty good idea what to expect once turning the corner.

Corpses...a room full of corpses either rotting or fully decomposed. The intense smell was even stronger in here and it made him stagger. But that wasn't the sickening part, the part that made Hanshi sick to his core was that none of these corpses belonged to adults. They were all children, and he wasn't braced enough to witness the sight of tortured, mutilated rotten corpses of innocent children when he crossed the corner. Most were lying decapitated and mutilated on the ground. Their insides had been drained down a grating, and all been accumulated into one thick rotten gooey substance below. While others were hanged in their limbs or miniature cages or left stretched or impaled on varieties of torture devices with their insides crawling down the machines from their skin.

Hanshi's stomach began to churn at the sight stepping back ever so slightly in both horror and disgust , the sight and the smells turned his stomach he could feel his stomach churning and the rising taste of his dinner within his throat.He would quickly turn around to put that place behind him both physically and mentally. Luckily for Hanshi none of those bodies happened to not be fresh ; as he hurried down the left path he would take deep breaths attempting to calm himself that little display leaving him a bit shook.

For the first time, ever since arriving to this bizarre place he heard a noise. Voices.. In the distance, though it wasn't a conversation pace echoing through space but more like a continuous hum. He drew closer to its source, tapping lightly on the stone pavements.. In the small distance, walking down a frail looking spiral staircase....People....Dressed in long robes carrying torches as they were chanting something that was nothing but nonsensical gibberish to Hanshi

They seemed to be escorting either children or very tiny dwarves in white robes somewhere else in the compound , Hanshi noticed the midgets didn't seem to be putting up much of a fight and it's be best not attack and draw attention , he would decide to trail these small chanting people maybe just maybe they would lead him to his quarry..... [to be continued]

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