[Lonely] Madness in the Stars

[Zao]

Somewhere concealed within a mesmerizing seen of stars, passing comets, and strange looking planets that did not belong to his own planet's space floating a bubble of space time. It was within this geometric shape that one could find a white-haired man seated on a small floating island that rested in the center of this constructed space that was silently floating through the cosmos. He wore a flowing white robe with gold and silver embroidery upon its edging and back, as a swirling like design came together between the gold and silver threads upon the robe in the back to the family crest of the middle aged shinobi. Zao's hair seemed to float up around him ever so slightly and as one grew closer, they would see that the ninja was not actually seated upon the ground but floating a few feet above it in the lotus position.

Carved into the grass beneath him revealing the tan soil was what could only be described as some sort of fuuin inscription that took up tens of meters of the floating island and glowed with multicolored chakra that didn't appear to be that of a human. Directly in the multijointed diagram on the ground where only two objects. The first and most noticeable was a glass style coffin, or at least what appeared to be to be one, while in reality it was a space-time bubble of chakra created by the Spirit Saint in order to slow time down to the slowly possible level in order to sustain the life of the beautiful whited haired young woman who rested with a peaceful expression within the container of 'frozen' spacetime. Despite her natural beauty one could see that she was aged beyond her years as if being exhausted of her life force through some unknown means.

Extending up her neck from within her light pink kimono attire was what looked like black veins that ran up her neck on the left side before disappearing down into the clothing, hints of the same darkness could be seen on the woman's left hand and exposed left foot. A curse left on her body from the Demon Hegemon who had twisted the couples lives upside down, leaving the Suna shinobi pushed past the breaking point as he searched for some manner of medicine, science, or magic to heal the woman who was his heart and soul. But the dark chakra within her body only continued to slowly devour her chakra and life force. Pushed to the point the Zao had even killed two allies, one of his home village and one of the Leaf village, in order to obtain the power of a genma, the beings known for being able to harness levels of chakra far beyond what even shinobi were able to comprehend.

"There is no turning back for me, nor anything that I wouldn't do to save you...my love." A soft whisper voice of desperate man lingered faintly in the twisting space time as the man unfolded his legs now allowing the tips of his left foot to gently touch down on the thick grass between the cravings upon the ground, first the left and then the right. Currently the Bannin had activated an ancient sealing technique that would draw out all the chakra of the genma in his possession to power his mystic spacetime abilities as he wished to turn back time to the before his wife was infected with the deadly demon's chakra curse. Exhaling slowly the man lifted his pale blue eyes, ones that were much dimmer than in the past, allowing for them to fall upon Wei, his wife. A clap cloud be heard as his hands came together before starting into a series of unusual and complex looking hand seals that had several seals that weren't tough in normal ninpou, this set belonged to a forbidden style which the researcher had learned to use the genma's power as his own.

Zao didn't care that it would forfeit the spirit's life in the process, he had lost himself and such care in the world in his pursuit of this act of madness that shouldn't be possible...despite knowing that it had not stopped the Suna Bannin from walking down the current path he found himself on in a valley of darkness. Transparent chakra formed a pillar around the outer edges of the fuuin diagram as the chakra from a meter tall sealing jar that contained the fusion gemna glowed with multiple colors as it shown brightly feeding the forbidden technique the ninja was activating. The spacetime coffin containing his wife Wei shattered leaving the woman floating in the air about two meters above the ground as the swirling space time cylinder at the other edges of the fuuin seal began to shrink slowly until it soon only was a few meters wide and held just Zao and the beautiful young woman's body. A few moments later only her body was contained in the two-meter diameter column of flickering spacetime as sweat beaded upon the shinobi's face and body, feeling his own chakra being rapidly depleted along with that of the powerful spirit beast he had removed from the Konoha shinobi.

Inside the barrier that had formed time was being forcibly turned back, despite knowing the natural law of space and time Zao was attempting to go beyond the power of a normal mortal with the aid of the spirit. But turning back time a few minutes was already the extent of what most spacetime users were capable of and that was enough to completely exhaust a person...Zao wanted to do years! Something that didn't even seem plausible, but it would not stop him from attempting to do so as he narrowed his eyes on the dark lines that could be seen on her left hand and left side of her neck, watching and praying as time outside the spacetime bubble seemed to slow while the time inside was rapidly turning backwards. But even after several minutes only small changes could be seen, it was in essence working but turning back time to such an extent wasn't easy by any means. Despite the barely noticeable changes he continued to push on to the point that he collapsed to a knee from exhaustion as the massive chakra reserves began to run low and the energy from the genma spirit were nearly depleted too. He didn't care about the spirit, something strange from the spirit saint, as he drew out the last ounces of power from the fusion genma as its life force faded from existence and the ceramic sealing jar it had been held within shattered.

Numerous pieces of the jar scattered onto the ground as the sealing formation began to tremble before it to shattered, in the blink of an eye Zao appeared to take the floating woman into his arms as he allowed what remained of his chakra to probe the woman's body via a Iijutsu assessment technique to see how much of the dark chakra curse had been reversed. But the answer could be seen in his creased brown and the slight shaking of his head. The cursed chakra had receded but only enough that it could no longer been seen outside her normal clothing, but little had changed internally for Wei. In his absent-minded thoughts, the soft touch of the woman's hand as it fell upon the left side of his face snapped him back to the moment causing his to cast a gentle gaze upon his lover as he held her thin frame against his own body. "My love..." She spoke, her voice weak but full of tenderness despite her current condition, "...you've done too much..." Though she had been inside the spacetime coffin she was well aware of everything going on outside of it and the actions of her husband.

"You are turning into a man I don't know, while I am afraid of dying do not become a monster to try and save me..." The man she loved so dearly had done things she could not believe he was capable of in order to have even the slightest change of healing her or at the least prolonging her life, but she would not wish another to sacrifice their life to simply extend her own. Even at this moment she could feel the cursed chakra surging within her body...she didn't say anything else and reached up with her other arm now in order to wrap both frail arms around the neck of her husband glistening streams of tears, one on either side of the man's face were evident in the starry light that bathed both of them at the moment. Without realizing it the man had become a monster of sorts, willing to destroy and kill whatever and whomever stood in his path in order to simply spend a bit longer holding onto Wei.

Time seemed to freeze after the man collapsed onto his backside on the grass still holding the fragile looking woman tightly in his arms, from this day only until the life in her eyes would fade, Zao would spend every waking hour, minute, and second with his wife as the days slowly passed for the pair. Zao could not bear to part with her and stayed within his personal star scaped realm with Wei, not returning to the human realm. Three months passed like this, but that was all that the young woman could hold onto her life force before she slipped away in the comfort of the couple's bed hold the hand of her soul mate, for a time the man simply held her hand and cried at the bed side.

Outside the bamboo structure that was the man's home a small shine had been constructed for his wife, laid to rest after her passing. A pair of incents burned causing twin smoke trails to intertwin as they rose upwards, the disheveled white-haired man sat quietly before the Japanese looking shrine simply sipping sake from a small ceramic cup, unsure of how much time had passed back in the human realm or the events that had unfolded because of his actions or other events that were happening. "So this is what truly loneliness feels like..."