Not so Snow White

Times had changed over the past two hundred years in Sunagakure and the hidden village now was shaped like a circle with three gates. One separated the outside of Sunagakure and the outskirts of it, the next separated the outskirts and the middle class folks and the next gate separated the higher class and the middle class. Ryuza hated the new system of Sunagakure very much and wanted it to go back to how it was in the past where nobody was ever separated and everyone was together. He felt that if it went back to the old system everyone would be happy and togetherness would fill each and everyone's heart. But with the new system everyone was separated and judging people by their economical status started to become more of an occurrence. It was two minutes into his jog when the white-haired salamander finally reached the gates that lead to the outside of Sunagakure and into the vast desert. Ryuza expected at least one other shinobi to accompany himself on the mission since the bandits posed a potential threat to Sunagakure's civilians, even though it was a little to no chance that they would attack Sunagakure. Each and every threat had to be handled in the right manner and with great caution, in order to be a great shinobi everything must be handled seriously and that’s why Ryuza wasn’t so good at being a shinobi but being a boy who exhibited excessive bitch behaviour everywhere he went.

Ryuza really didn’t know who was his assigned partner and he judged it would be another Chuunin or a more proven Genin who was eligible for the upcoming Chuunin exams. As he waited for his partner, he sat down on an old wooden bench beside one of the shinobi that guarded the gate. These shinobi were able to manipulate the element of sand and successfully open and close the gates at anytime when needed. He slouched over and cupped his chin with his two hands and tapped his two feet on the ground at different times to create a rather odd but pleasant beat, well, most likely only pleasant to the salamander’s ears because the people around him gave him weird looks and Ryuza answered them with a few curse words and a ‘shoo’ motion with his stronger hand. Five more minutes had passed and his partner had not arrived at the gates and so Ryuza stood out and decided he was going to take the mission himself. A few steps to the left and he was staring at the gates but it seemed like the guards were off of duty now. Even though they were fully fledged headband wearing shinobi of Sunagakure they could not leave without permission from one of the guards. Now, he really didn’t want to wait because patient wasn’t the young dragon’s thing so he decided to spark a conversation with the next shinobi he saw.

Luckily for him, there was a shinobi he had never seen standing next to him. The man also possessed white hair which Ryuza had never seen other than on himself. He had a pair of grey orbs in his eyelids that seemed to stare through his soul. Ryuza found his attire very weird, a white long-sleeved pajama top, and white pajama pants. His white sleeved shirt was briefly covered by a vest for Jounin members. Ryuza wondered how he made the rank of Jounin if he had never spotted him in the streets, was he a phony shinobi that just dressed up like them? Ryuza thought he was quite creepy and it seemed like the man was staring through his soul. Thinking of words to start up a conversation, he placed his right hand around the back of his head and asked him two questions.

“Who are you and how’s it going?”

Little did he know this man was his partner for the mission.

"I'll be your partner for the day, name's Keiji Toshiro, nice to meet you" As he introduced himself Ryuza itched his chin, trying to remember if he had ever heard of the name spoken before him in the past. After a couple seconds of thinking he was almost one hundred percent sure he had never seen him nor had he heard of him. From the introduction it seemed as if he was the salamander’s assigned partner that was suppose to aid him in the saving of the recently abducted actors. The older shinobi commanded the returning guard to open the gates with a simple hand gesture; the shinobi must have had high authority around these parts if he was able to leave the village gates without clear verbal permission from the guard. As soon as the gates had fully opened a gust of sand blew right into Ryuza’s mouth and he was lucky that he shielded his eye’s from damage. Spitting the hard sand out, he noticed that his partner had already taken off on foot. He was quite a fast shinobi for someone who seemed as lazy as a bear when it hibernates.

The young dragon of Sunagakure rushed after the older shinobi who was accompanying him on the mission, mere minutes into the mission and they spotted tracks and they were definitely tracks of humans. Now, Ryuza was not sure who would come out this far into the desert unless they were on a mission and if they were on a mission there would be more footprints leading back to Sunagakure but these one’s just headed straight ahead. The bandits must have really been in a rush, maybe they were hungry? Maybe they needed to finish their chores? Maybe they had a tournament coming up and they had to practice for it? Even though it was very unlikely that any of those could be true, everything was a possibility in Ryuza’s odd mind.

His Jonin partner mentioned that they were going to have to go straight through either the hidden village of Amegakure or Kusagakure to get to their targets located in Takigakure. Amegakure was more of a war stricken place and bandits ran around everywhere while Kusagakure was moreso on the peaceful side. A sane human being would probably choose the safer route due to the fact they probably didn’t want to endanger their lives but Ryuza was different from the rest and he was going to head to Amegakure. They possibly could get in a fight or two but what harm could that do? Ryuza believed he was able to take down anybody and that nobody could stop him which was quite a cocky and arrogant thing to go by but whatever.

The wind started to blow faster in the middle of the desert and it appeared that a sandstorm was in the making and this was going to be a bad one. Ryuza knew when a sandstorm would be rough and when one would possess little to no threat and that was because he was literally born in the desert. As the winds started to blow faster the sand started to create more damage against Ryuza’s face so he simply wrapped his white scarf around his face and that made him seem like an assassin. As they followed the tracks with great intent, Ryuza heard a rustle in the sand, it was a very awkward noise and it definitely wasn’t the wind making noises due to the approaching storm. Someone or something was there and it also knew the pair was there. Ryuza had faced a sand spider and a couple sand hawks in his previous mission and they gave him the jitters. The last thing he wanted to do was lose energy or chakra from battling something like that. When it was least expected, Ryuza heard footsteps coming from behind him and out of the sand erupted a giant sand scorpion. At least seven times the size of a regular scorpion, it was massive, its claw’s were enough to slice one’s head off and its pincer could probably inject enough venom into a person to kill them within an hour of piercing their skin. Ryuza immediately hopped back and prepared for battle with the desert creature.

It all happened in an instant and something that seemed like the Grim Reaper appeared out of nowhere, it held its scythe which was covered with blood and it had a black cloak on. Ryuza was not sure what was happening but the scythe that the mythological legend was wielding pierced the spider’s large head and blood oozed all over the floor which made it look like the sand had become abstract paint. The spider’s black head was split open and after the spider stopped twitching which almost made Ryuza hurl, the legend poofed away. Right before it had poofed away though he managed to spot a transparent string that was attached to the grim reaper which symbolized some type of puppetry or witchcraft was in play here. The salamander did not know until this point his partner to be one that specialized in the rare art form of puppetry but he expected something like puppetry to be mastered by someone who had the same level of laziness as the puppeteer. Within seconds the pajama-wearing shinobi was right in front of Ryuza and his hand placed on his shoulder.

"What are you doing? We're not allowed to waste time on things like these, the more we wait or delay the slimmer the chances that we'll found our targets alive."

This is when people got on his nerves, accusing him of things that he never started. It wasn’t his fault that a fucking scorpion that was both oversized and overweight jumped out of nowhere and started charging towards his ass. Of course he was going to defend himself; he wasn’t going to die to in the middle of a desert and rot away in a couple hours. He felt like putting Keiji down and make him even more miserable like he did to everybody but he decided to keep his mouth shut for the timebeing. They had a mission to complete and Ryuza certainly did not want to mess it up. Hours and hours of walking consisted of no verbal communication and no friendly gestures to establish a friendship between the two; rather, it was more of a quiet trip until they reached an environment quite different from the desert surrounding Sunagakure. It was a forest of trees, each more than seventy feet in height and three meters in diameter. Insects of all sorts traveled on the floors of the forests while colourful butterflies painted the skies as they flew over top. At least it wasn’t like the giant spiders, scorpions and hawks that plagued the desert surrounding Sunagakure and due to that the young shinobi let out a sigh of relief. He did not have to deal with giant things other than humans for a while, hopefully. The temperature was much different in these parts, colder but not too cold, it was more on the mild side but it was very humid which made it sticky and that’s what Ryuza hated. Ryuza placed both arms on his hips and thought of what to do.

“Oy, it's your time to shine. I have a habit to lose myself in these forests."

Ryuza chuckled; the older puppeteer was asking him to lead the way. Everyone knew that Ryuza had only the worst sense of direction that the world had ever seen. For some reason he wasn’t gifted in that department like he was at battling with other shinobi. As they walked through the forest, Ryuza studied the various flora with even more intent. When he looked up at the trees they seemed to touch the clouds, shrubs and bushes littered the forest floor and everything was fresh, the ground was damp which symbolized a rainfall occurred within the past day or so. The scent that surrounded the area smelled like fresh flowers and a strange aura surrounded the duo which felt like again something or someone was stalking them. But the aura wasn’t as strong as the spider’s one was, if anything, it probably was just a normal sized spider waiting to strike, possibly a tarantula. Seconds turned into minutes and minutes turned into hours and it almost seemed as if time itself had stopped. The same trees, the same bugs, the same path, it was almost as if it was following them. Ryuza wondered how to get out of the forest, he looked around himself panting, his feet aching and with no prevail he looked towards Keiji in an attempt to see if he could lead the way.

It seemed as if Keiji's simple plan involving his chakra threads had prevailed, it was not everyone that carried chakra threads with them everywhere they went but judging by the fact that the shinobi was a puppeteer it must have been quite useful and resourceful at the same time. Amegakure wasn't such a pleasant sight, its walls were bruised and battered by the scars that wars had left upon the war-stricken village. It seemed like anyone who chose to reside in the village would have to be ready for a battle at anytime. Hate must have been locked away in the deepest realms and dimensions of their shinobi's hearts. He did not even begin to comprehend how people even slept outside in this village when if they looked out the window at night all they would see was misery and evil complemented by the never pretty sight, darkness. Shifting from his current train of thoughts to the very fabric of reality he gazed at the guards who stood before the duo. They were quite sturdy and tough looking and exactly as he expected, they were armed and ready for a battle.The gates were tall and wooden which Ryuza thought was stupid, wood was not going to halt evil beings from intruding Amegakure, they needed something more durable and harder. Something that was more trustworthy in crisis times like these but judging by the appearance of the village, the economical status of the village must have been very poor and at the absolute bottom of the scale.

The guard demanded for their name's and their purpose of being near Amegakure in a rather rude fashion but the pink salamander could care less; if he became a guard in the future which he really did not plan on he would probably act the same. After about ten minutes of waiting patiently, the guard had come back and seemed to confirm their case. He positioned and then commanded his men to start opening the gate and they did so in quite a quick fashion. The gate opened with a sound that resembled one of an old wooden rocking chair that needed oil carefully applied to its joints. With a quick acceleration, Ryuza stopped when he entered the village, he took a quick glance and this just confirmed his suspicions. Everything was in a complete wreck, not a single soul was roaming the streets and whatever light that entered Amegakure was very little. But the thing that plagued the area the most was darkness.

"What the hell happened..?"

He walked very slowly through the streets, observing everything from the barred down shops to the lifeless sidewalks. Everything was in a complete mess, as they walked down the road in total he spotted one person and it was a small kid. He was sitting in his corner with crumbs of bread and a glass of water, he was sobbing and a portrait was perked up beside him. It was of an elderly woman, possibly of the kid's mother, but Ryuza was not going to do anything, they had a mission to complete and the mission always came before others. It was the way of the shinobi, little did they know as they walked down the streets there was a shinobi, or was he an assassin? Or was he just someone who stalked people for money? Everything was possible, he sat perched on the rooftops like a hawk waiting to go in for a kill and directly opposite of him was another that looked exactly like him. They seemed to be whispering through a walkie talkie to one another (yes there are walkie talkies in Naruto), every move that the duo made was followed by an exact copy by the two men. 

What was going to happen next?