[Graded] Sorry You're Not a Winner

[King of Cats]

Standing in a meadow Aizen looked around him. It was truly beautiful to behold, there were birds chirping and even deer walking around the soft grassy earth. Aizen was surrounded by nature and he felt truly at peace with himself in that moment. He was thankful to be where he was. It had been a long journey since he left Iwagakure three years ago and after walking for what seemed like forever he was finally where he wanted to be, the Land of Sakura. Aizen took a deep breath in and looked into the afternoon sun. He saw deer grazing and little rabbits scurrying. The nukenin was incredibly proud of how far he had come.

Aizen had left the village with no idea where he would go, and he really had no idea what he was looking for. Aizen sought freedom, but such a force was intangible on Earth. He could not simply grab out into the air and pull freedom from nothing. As Aizen traveled further from Iwa he considered what exactly he was looking for and began to philosophize the meaning of liberty. He spent a long time pondering and forgot to truly experience that which he sought. For the first year of his traveling Aizen didn't feel freedom. He had a lot of past logos that he had to abolish in order to be free from Iwagakure's brain washing and Aizen worked hard to rid himself of the settlings of a villager. Aizen knew he would need to pull out all of the stops in order to function out on the road, and worrying about freedom was something he learned to do passively. As he traveled he found himself in the way of townsfolk and Aizen simply went with the flow. He learned a lot about the people outside of Iwagakure, and most importantly he learned what freedom meant to other people.

The people that Aizen ran into were of all sorts. The poor people seemed to struggle the most with exercising their freedoms. Well to do people seemed most proud of the freedoms provided to them by society, and Aizen found it curious to have so much pride for something that one didn't need to work for. As he became familiar with the people Aizen learned that there was more to freedom than just waking up. These people paid taxes and served in civil cases as both jury and executioner. They were fortunate people not by what they earned, but by what they did for others. Aizen found such a sentiment curious and spent many nights trying to see how he could mingle with such people. How he could get a better understanding of what freedom meant to people.

Traveling further and further from Iwa Aizen eventually heard tale of a revolutionary government that was sweeping over nations. The Crescent Coalition was offering peace by forging a government unlike any before. Aizen wondered just what it would be like in a country that claimed to be different than the one he was used to, and he decided to head to the Land of Sakura.

Traveling the long way would be arduous for him but Aizen had an unbreakable will that would push the nukenin further towards his destination. Aizen sought out a land governed by reason, a land where thoughtfulness was on full display; and nothing would stop him from seeing such heights.

Aizen walked from village to village along the long and winding road. Stopping whenever he could to get some warm food and strong drinks. He had long since spent the ryo he brought with him outside of Iwa so renting rooms was no longer an option, but with some luck he would often find work to be done and could earn a night in bed. As it happened when he was traveling he stopped at a small town and picked up some work from a single mother. Her name was Nana and she lived in the small town with just her infant child. She needed wood to be chopped for the winter and Aizen was more than thankful to help her out. He chopped all day long and using his supernatural strength he made short work of the trees that Nana needed cut up. To thank him Nana gave Aizen some ryo for his troubles and suggested he stay at the local inn for the night. Aizen took her advice and rested peacefully in a warm bed.

Before he went to sleep Aizen sat shirtless on the edge of his bed with his head in his hands. He had been thinking about Nana and wondered if she felt free. She seemed to live happily with her son, and Aizen couldn't see anything wrong with them. The question of if they were in fact free still ate at Aizen. He wanted the people around him to live without fear. But he couldn't help people if he didn't know what plagued him. Aizen sat there on the bed stressing and came to a resolve. He decided if he wanted to help people he would have to understand them, and to that he knew he had to work with them. He resolved to go back to Nana's home and learn about her.

The next day Aizen did like he planned to and went back to Nana's house. She was feeding her child when he knocked and the baby came with her to the door. It wasn't crying and looked happy sucking it's bottle. Aizen was glad to see someone living free and he wondered if the baby felt free. Aizen told Nana that he was hoping to help her again, in a different way this time. He explained his passion to Nana, how he left Iwagakure to travel the world and create a free world for people. Aizen didn't spare any details. Usually he lied about his identity to people, claiming to be a merchant from Rock Country. Aizen, for some reason, trusted Nana and let her know everything. He asked her if she would be honest with him and tell him what she thought about freedom.

"Well Aizen," Nana said to him. "I think I've always felt free. There's no slaves here, and the laws are settled in but they don't seem overbearing. I believe freedom is a choice. Like anger, or fear, your mind chooses to feel it based on your past experiences." Nana put her finger to Aizen's mouth, he was about to talk. "Listen. You can't make people feel something." Nana pulled the bottle from her sleeping babies mouth. "Come in."

Aizen and Nana sat and talked for hours. At first they talked about freedom and Aizen's dream for people. It was enlightening for Aizen. Since he left Iwa he had no one to talk to about the things that troubled him and knowing that someone else thought about the same things that he did was reassuring to the missing ninja.

Nana did however think differently of freedom than Aizen did. Aizen saw freedom as the power blessed to humanity. With freedom happiness could be controlled. Justice was the byproduct of freedom being exercised, or at least that was how Aizen saw it. He kept it to himself however and only listened to Nana. She told him stories of her sons father and her family. Nana was a worldly young lady and Aizen was thankful to have her in his company. They talked for a long time but eventually Aizen had to get going and he left.

Back at the hotel Aizen stayed up all night, wondering how he could get others to view their right to freedom like he did. Aizen was restless that night but he did eventually get some sleep. A skilled shinobi, sleeping on a dime was a skill Aizen had long since mastered.

The next day Aizen left the town and solemnly headed back onto the road to find his way to Sakura. It would take him a long week to make it to the grasslands of Sakura Country, but eventually Aizen did make it and he felt inspired by the beauty of the pinkened landscape. The crescent Coalition surely had their hands on a beautiful nation. Aizen was standing in a bright green meadow with rabbits and deer traipsing around him, there were strong cherry blossom trees growing all over that had the most wonderful scent and in the season they were blooming. Aizen was impressed with himself for making it so far and sat down in the knee high grass. He wanted to commemorate the moment with a carving. As he was walking through the forests he had found a branch of cherry blossom wood that was the perfect length for a walking stick. Aizen began carving into it. He hoped to make it ornate and sell it in the next village. Aizen was skilled with his hands, and he had some artistic ability so he ended up spending a good two hours whittling away what would be a beautiful walking stick.

Back on his feet Aizen walked through the meadow and onto the roadside. As he stepped onto the road Aizen saw a group of people traveling in a caravan. The caravan had open window sand Aizen could see two people sitting inside, they looked like woman. Riding on top the wooden cart were two men. One guy was holding the reins to the horses and he was yelling at the other guy to get the girls ready. Aizen wondered just what he was witnessing and decided to go under covert measures to extract some information from these strangers.

Aizen called out to the people, "Hey!" They stopped what they were doing and looked in Aizen's direction. They didn't say anything and Aizen stepped closer to them he could see they were quite ugly men. For some reason Aizen's intuition began flaring up like a fire alarm. He activated his Lurianic Emanation. A thin film of blue chakra covered his body and light blue smoke began to envelop the ninja. Aizen probed with the smoke, feeling around the carriage he was now standing next to. He felt a sword sitting on the bench of the carriage, next to the driver; and on the other guy was a jacket strapped up with paper tags. More than that the women inside were clearly distressed, their chests shaking from their heartbeat pounding inside. Aizen decided to go on the full offensive. He deemed the driver of the carriage a threat and decided to try and lure him down.

"Please help me sir, something's possessed me!" Aizen cried out. He could tell the chakra surrounding him had thrown off the driver, the man had reached for his sword. He didn't draw it though, instead calling out to Aizen, "Where do you come from? Don't be bringing spirits to my, uhm, family!" Aizen could tell the man was lying about the people on the carriage being his family. The missing ninja fell to his knees, acting pained. Aizen began writhing on the ground and screaming, Help me!"

One of the women inside the caravan suddenly jumped out screaming, "Help us!" Aizen thought her heart was going to jump out of his chest. As she made a scene the carriage driver grabbed the sword from it's sheath and screamed, "Get back in there cunt!" Aizen knew it was time to act, the driver was jumping down from the carriage with his sword. Aizen flipped up off the ground and drew a shuriken from his back pouch. He launched it at the driver and hit him square in the stomach. The man screamed but changed his direction and began swinging his sword at Aizen. Aizen was quick to dodge and entered the Flames of Hate • Walking Stance. Aizen easily dodged all the strikes and as his opponent leaned too far towards him Aizen began channeling chakra into his palm. He turned in on his side and stepped forward into his opponent then Aizen jutted his palm forward into his opponents belly where the shuriken was still sticking out of his guts. With technical precision Aizen blasted his chakra into the shuriken sending it further into the mans stomach. As it was pushed through his guts Aizen turned his face to see his opponent. Aizen knew the fight was over. The shuriken had lodged itself in between the drivers vertebrae and paralyzed him. It was only a matter of time before the man hit the ground. With a thud the fight was over and Aizen walked away from the paralyzed perpetrator and towards the carriage.

The man on top of the carriage began waving his arms and screaming. "We can't leave the carriage. There's a seal on me. If one of us leaves too far from the gold inside this chest I will explode. You have to undo it." Aizen looked at the woman who had left the caravan. She was still in a safe distance, but simply Aizen wasn't sure he could remove the fuuinjutsu. He was certainly going to try though. Aizen walked over to the woman and helped her back into the carriage where she cried with her companion. He then jumped onto the top of the carriage and took a look at the chest filled with gold. On the lock there was a paper tag with a fuuin pressed over it with wax. Aizen wasn't sure if he had the skills to do it, and typically he was filled with confidence. This looked like it was concrete and as the man was literally sobbing and telling Aizen what happened the missing ninja came up with a plan.

Aizen pulled a paper tag out of his pocket and with a small ink pen he bagan writing the seal. Aizen planned on doing something most unconventional. He finished the seal and then performed a series of handseals while holding it, imbuing it with his chakra. Aizen placed the seal on the forehead of the man and then told him to wait just a moment with his eyes closed. The missing ninja jumped back down and told the women he had solved the seal and they were good to walk away. He explained that the man was simply waiting as a precaution.

When the girls stepped too far from the caravan two things happened. First a signal was sent to the treasure box to detonate the mans detonation tags. Before that message got to the seal on the mans chest the seal on his forehead was activated by the signal and Aizen's fuuinjutsu activated. The man began flying up in the sky at a 90 degree angle. The man flew in the air as the jutsu has pushed him, and then in just a second the bomb went off. The man was killed but by being sent so high in the air by the Demonic Path jutsu Aizen and the girls were saved.

When it happened the girls began weeping. The man was their brother and Aizen had lied to them. They simply assumed he had made a mistake though, they hadn't seen their brother fly through the air by Aizen's jutsu. Playing the role Aizen appeared to be distraught and after some acting he fitted himself as the new guardian of the two sisters while they walked the roads of Sakura Country.

It wouldn't be but two weeks before Aizen parted ways with the girls, one of whom he romanced. He was sad to see ehr go but Aizen was a ninja who believed in greater things in life than romance and lust. He was happy with the girls in the moment, but he was more relieved to be free from his lies. Alone Aizen continued down the roadside, searching for the civilization free from human corruption.