In one of the more isolated training grounds accessible to Konoha Ninja Academy students, a well of shadows churned at the bottom of a hole, recently dug but forgotten in the heat of the moment, between crazy energy tornadoes and a giant monster attack. It was one of the newer training areas, one of many designated in the wake of the disaster eleven years before, in places where there was nothing left to rebuild and no one to rebuild it. Before that, it had actually been a small, steep-sided hill, with a shrine at the top. A single swipe of one of the Kyuubi no Yoko's tails had left the place level with the ground and thrown the material of the hill, shrine and all, at one of the groups of ninja that had been trying to fend off its attack. One hundred seven layers of wards and barrier seals had also been destroyed in that attack, defenses that had been laid down as the hill itself was piled up, with the holy boulder at the peak serving as a capstone. The shrine guardian, the only person who really knew what it protected, died as well in that instant, leaving only a single thin barrier between an ancient evil and the oblivious world.
A barrier that had now been breached, by the innocent actions of a small boy.
Though the ground still shook and winds gusted with the footsteps and attacks of the Guardian of Stone and the giant enemy it was fighting nearby, the dark mist flowing from the hole moved smoothly and flowed like a river away from the small city, seeking ground more suited to its nature. An ideal area was not far away, a place where the natural energies of the earth eddied and swirled, forming a spiritual sargasso of dread and negative feelings. The plant and animal life in the area were already warped into bigger, more hostile forms as a result, and the area as a whole had been fenced off and restricted as a high-level training area to keep people from wandering in, or the beasts from wandering out. A tower had been built in the center of the naturally circular area, meant to house teams to study the effect and its results on the wildlife, but which now stood empty almost all of the time, save for the occasional security patrol. Passing through its walls without a trace, the flowing shadow pooled within the foundation until it had all collected there. Then, it began to grow, to spread out evenly until it reached a certain radius, the limit of its range with the paltry amount of energy absorbed during the light show. The tower turned pitch black, festooned with blades and lit by eerie witchlights glowing here and there. Plant life within its embrace suddenly withered to dry rot and dust, forest animals falling dead and decaying to scattered bones in an instant - and then there was a moment of warping space, a twisting of the natural order as the claimed territory seemed to shrink in on itself and the surrounding trees and grass spread to fill the missing space, the ambient light dimming as if under a heavy overcast.
At the center, in the place where a tower should have been, was a single tree, twisted and missing long swathes of bark from blight. Blackish-purple sap wept from the bare patches like blood from a wound, some evaporating into small dark clouds and some hardening into glossy nodules like smoky amber. One particularly thick cloud formed and drifted off toward the city, eldritch senses detecting a compatible host.
One of the trees beside it suddenly withered to a dead husk, then vanished, the surroundings stretching again to replace it. The zone of shadow stretched just a bit further at the rim on that side, losing its circular shape. A stripe of grass wilted in the same direction, followed by another tree. They too were replaced, and the shadows grew longer.
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(Posted Thu, 03 Jun 2010 21:10)
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らんま1/2 © Rumiko Takahashi
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