Journey To Mist [Shin and Mica]

He walks down a dirt road, a thick mist covering about the whole area.

"Geez, I can barely see.." He stopped walking around and looked around. Why the hell am I even going to Mist, anyway? He pondered the thought as he made his way down the path. Suddenly, a sharp, spinning object flew past his cheek, grazing it. "..The hell!?" He looked around and drew a kunai. Certainly Random.. He got into his battle position and braced himself, preparing himself for whatever just threw that shuriken at him. After five minutes passed, he realized no one was coming so he continued down his path.

"Hmm.." He still was alert after the attack, just in case.

Mica had been lounging in a tree lazily, having lost her team recently. It wasn't uncommon as the turds often thought it amusing to ditch her, even her sensei, but at least it also meant she didn't have to hang out with them for extended periods of time. Lazily her eyes drifted to the nearby road, a few large trees hiding her when she saw a lone guy walking along.

'Wonder what he's doing here...although he could be an enemy too.'

She jumped to one tree, then to another to get a closer look, and made the mistake of nearly slipping and squeaking out loud in surprise. Having righted herself her eyes dashed back to him, and she'd be surprised if he hadn't heard that just now.

His eyes widen, showing that he heard that squeaking sound, He quickly whipped the kunai in the direction of the noise.

"The Attacker.." He drew another kunai and rushed in the direction of the 'attacker'.

Eyes widened as she saw him rushing at her, and she quickly hopped to another tree to try and get away.

"Attacker? What are you talking about? I was just lounging and then I saw you and was curious!" 'I'll bet it was a stupid teammate or other, they always think its amusing to throw damned kunai,' she thought to herself, grumbling inwardly. Surely they were trying to kill her this way.

He saw the girl jumping from the tree, trying to escape.

"...Whoa.." His face turned red and he dropped the kunai he was holding. He start to tremble and blood seeped from his nostril. DAMN! She's hot! Alright, Shinku, be cool. Be cool. He raised his hands into the air and smiled sheepishly.

"Heh! I'm sorry! I'm sorry! I thought you were the person that attacked me."

"Nope, sorry, I was ditched so I decided to take a nap instead," Mica replied, sighing in relief. It may have sounded very unprofessional of her to "give up" trying to find them, but...whatever, they didn't want her. Besides they'd complete their mission.

"Soooo...what village are you from anyhow?" she asked, dusting herself off a bit. She couldn't recall seeing him at hers, but one never knew.

"Well..I'm from Mist..but I live in Leaf..." His face turned bright red and he began to back up. He scratched the back of his head, still smiling.

"Really? Are you sorta one of those...oh darn what are they called," Mica had to stop and think for a moment, "One of those 'good will ninja' or other? You know, the ones village will trade off for a time to help promote peace between villages?"

Whether he was or not she wouldn't know, as he could just as well lie and say he was even if he was truthfully undercover. But in all truth, she also didn't care if it was some secret mission, as then he'd have to "kill her" or other if he blurted. Thinking about it...if it was secrecy she hoped he lied instead. Nevertheless she smiled at him, preferring cheerfulness to any other emotion.

"Uh...Not really. I just moved to Leaf..Cuz..well..its a long story.." He narrowed his eyes and put his hands in his pocket. "So what village you from?"

"Me? I'm from Cloud, always been there, likely always will," she responded smiling. Even if she stopped being a ninja she always figured she could do something else, like be a librarian...or an accountant. Okay maybe not that. A realization seemed to hit her, as the smile faded somewhat and her eyes widened and she suddenly bowed.

"Where are my manners! I am Mica! It is a pleasure to meet you!" she said, before straightening up and hoping she hadn't offended him in some way. Hopefully he wouldn't laugh at her name like most people did since it sounded like a boys' name.

"Mica. That's a pretty name." He still had that goofy smile on his face as he bowed back.

"I'm Shinku Houzu. Nice to meet ya too!"

She smiled back, pleased that they were on such friendly terms. Curiosity was one of her weaknesses though so she couldn't help but ask, "So, are you returning home to visit friends and family or something? I mean, you said you're from Mist yet live in Leaf, but are heading towards Mist. If its for a mission though thats fine and I don't need to know anymore than that. Sorry for asking."

It wasn't until after she asked that she realized it could be rude, but...she was curious, and he was fun to talk to, so she found something to possibly discuss.

"Well, Kinda, I'm going to see how much it changed. Heh." There was an intense change in facial expression. It went from just plain goofy to unbelievably serious. Suddenly, a giant chain whipped out of the mist, toward Mica.

"GET DOWN!" He tackled Mica out on the way, as the chain flew right over them.

"Pretty Good.." A Voice, which seemed to come from all round, said. Suddenly, a figure wearing a brown cloak walked out of the mist and faced the two shinobi. "Very alert, kid, I like it." The mystery man-or woman, no it was man- said as he retracted his chain, which came out of his sleeve.

Shinku got up from off of Mica, and pulled out a kunai from the holster on his left leg. "Hmm..Get ready Mica, I think there is trouble.."

Mica had at least enough time to brace herself to be tackled, though she was thankful since she wasn't sure she could've gotten out of that chain in time. Once Shinku was off of her she rolled to her feet, taking out her own kunai from the pouch on the back of her belt. There was no time to wonder who this attacker was, but she'd give it her all.

"All right," she said, putting the hand with the kunai in front of her and one leg forward, ready to jump back or spring forward. 'Just who the heck is this guy?' she wondered, staring at the cloaked individual.

The cloaked figure thrusted his arm toward Mica, and a chain poured out. Shinku jumped infront of the chain as it made its way toward her. The chain wrapped around Shinku and began to dig into his flesh.

"AHH!" He grunted in pain and looked at the stranger, attempting to squirm out of the chains.

"If you haven't noticed, the chain was laced with poison, so now, since it dug into your skin, its more likely entering your blood stream and attack your blood cells, then it'll eat away at your skin tissue." The man smirked as he pulled his arm back, retracting the chain and bringing Shinku over to him. "So..How does it feel..Hm? Slowly being ripped apart from the inside..?" The cloaked figure smirked and stared Shinku in the eyes.

"Tch...It feels...good.." Shinku's skin turned a bit pale, and his hair seemed to droop over his eyes.

Mica had been ready to push off to the side, but had been surprised by Shinku's sudden appearance, and became worried once the chain wrapped around him.

'Damn it!' then she heard the man mention that it was poisoned and her look hardened, knowing they had better try and get rid of this man quick, or kill him lest they die. She had a few herbs on her, but if they became seriously poisoned then all they'd do is halt the poison's progress for awhile. For a few seconds she started inching towards the left, in case the man was bothering to take notice of her. Hopefully he'd think she was either going to attack from that direction, or run away, but then she darted to the right. The hand with the kunai slashed out towards his side, but she ducked down low and spun around, launching a punch towards his kidneys in the back.

The man jumped forward, dodging the punch to the kidneys. The chain around Shinku started to crack and then broke. He fell to the ground, bleeding and holding his sides.

The man turned toward the girl, and began to unbutton his cloak.

"Hmm..How should I kill you?"

He took off cloak, showing his skin was pitch black and tendrils of darkness was sticking out of his stomach, reaching out for Mica. "Bwahaha. You will soon join your friend..fool!" The man's red eyes gleamed as the tendrils of darkness darted toward Mica.

Mica could only curse inwardly, where was her team when she needed their asses? Her eyes locked onto the tendrils, disturbed and disgusted by them. They seemed like something out of a bad book she once had the misfortune the leaf through. While she wanted to attend to Shinku she began trying to dodge the tendrils, twisting her body around some, and then flipped back. Doing a continuous stream of back flips each time she reached a hand and threw a shuriken or kunai at him or a tendril to help keep them away until she was at a farther away distance.

As far as she knew it was doubtful she could get away, but damned be if she went down easy, and readied another kunai, eyes glaring. From what she could tell so far she figured him to be between chunin and jounin at least, and could very possibly be a missing nin. 'Gods send me help if you can,' she prayed internally and watched for an opening.

A whirling noise could be heard, softly at first, muffled by Mica's flips and the ominous silence created by the reaching tendrils. It got louder however, and quite quickly, until a blur suddenly etched it's way between Mica and her attacker. The spinning object then came to a sudden halt, revealing itself to be none other then Eki's halberd, the giant weapon deflecting the remaining tendrils as it embedded it's point into the ground. A flash later, and Eki stood behind it, his right hand turned down, holding it's handle and his eyes locked on the demonic nin before him. Turning his head only slightly, he spoke.

"Mica, take care of the other nin, I'll hold him off."

With that being said, he leapt towards his opponent, eyes burning with fury as his sword flashed before them.

Shinku laid there, motionless.

"Hmm..It seems that your little friend is dead..too bad." Tendrils grew out of his hand and then moved toward his new opponent. He raised his free hand, and a purpleish black version of Eki's Halberd appeared in the nin's hand. He smiled demonically as he swung the halberd around.

'Just what the heck is this guy even MADE out of?!' Whatever he was, or had been, he wasn't human anymore that much was for sure. Mica frowned in sadness, sure that Shinku hadn't made it and felt bad that she'd been so useless in helping him. And damn it, now she'd have to dodge the copied halberd?!

She sighed, clearing her thoughts away and solely focusing on the mystery nin. Mica was thankful Eki had shown up, since she knew he was strong though she wondered about Akugo. Well no matter, she would offer support where she could, but she wasn't stupid enough to go charging towards that man by herself. Getting once again into a stance, she crouched down, feet a bit more than shoulder length apart. The hand holding a kunai was stretched out and crossing her torso, but not fully extended, and her other hand was held up slightly lower than her face.

The two halberds clashed, bit and held tight, both nin showing equal strength. As they were dead locked, Eki leaned forward, glaring down at the man's hideous appearance, staring him right in the eyes.

"Interesting, ung, type of energy you got there. I mean, that stuff's gotta be stronger then chakra, what do you call it?"

He then flipped backwards and into the air, using the opposing nin's strength as leverage. Using the momentum from the flip, he then let his halberd fly, having it resume it's spinning motion and aiming it so that it would hopefully cleave off the nin's head. Somehow, Eki doubted the battle would be over so easily, but he did have a theory on how he could finish it.

The halberd cut through the nin's neck like butter. A loud groaning sound was heard and black oooze squirted out of the nin's neck stump and then, the oooze started to take the form of an oval, forming back into his head.

"Heh..Nice Try.." The nin smirked and more tendrils extended from his hand toward the Eki, while tendrils reached out from his stomach toward Mica.

Eki watched the tendrils coming, withdrawing a kunai and slashing away at them, when he was finished, he tossed the kunai in Mica's direction, hoping to help her out. His eyes then refocused on the enemy once again.

So he does have some form of additional energy, he's got to. Perfect, time to finish this.

Stomping his right foot down, spiked wooden poles exploded from the ground, surrounding the demon nin. Now with his legs spread solidly, Eki formed hand seals, plenty of long and complicated ones. When he finished, he thrust out his palm, aiming it at the mysterious nin. Although he was still standing some twenty meters away, the kanji on his palm could be clearly read. Soon, the dark energies repairing the nin's body would be absorbed, sucked out of the bastard as if it were by a vacuum, Eki only needed to hold his concentration.

Kakuan Nitten Suishu [Sanctuary Enlightenment Enclosing Palm]
Rank: A
By utilizing the Wood Release power to harness the user's own life energy, the user will produce a seal in the form of kanji "seat" (座, za) on his hand. By then pointing that hand and focusing the chakra on a target of differential energy (ex: demons), the user will be able to control the target through its chakra. A variation of this jutsu is to suppress differential energy. To aid in this final effect, the user will use the Wood Release to produce several wood spiked posts with dragon heads from the ground to surround the target. The posts will then begin to drain the potency of the chakra until the chakra fully recedes back into the target. The stronger the chakra is in comparison to the user's own chakra, the closer the user must be for this jutsu to work. Having also noticed that Willows draw on a form of higher chakra, or chi as they call it, Eki has found this technique to be useful against them as well, being able to withdraw all of their energy with prolonged usage.

His cold, blood eyes widen as he felt his chakra get sucked away. He howled in pain as his body began to fade away.

"NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!" Finally as his dark energy was drained into the seal and he was no more.