Ekitai found himself in a strange, dark room. Surrounding him was darkness, and, somewhere beyond that darkness, lay the source of an incessant buzzing. It wasn't incredibly loud, but, being the only thing he could hear, it was starting to get to him. The only directions he could identify were up and down; There was no left, no right, no forward, no backwards. When you can't see a damn thing, directions start becoming a little meaningless.
It was just him, the chair he was strapped to, and the darkness.
And that god awful noise.
Was it getting louder? Ekitai concentrated for a moment, trying to determine if it was or not. If it was, it was increasing at such a slow pace that it was impossible to tell. He decided not to let it get to him, he had bigger things to worry about.
Like, for instance, why he was tied to a chair in a completely dark room. The last thing he remembered was leaving his house for something, but he couldn't quite remember what that was. It was right at top of his mind, trying to break through, but it wouldn't. He simply could not remember where he was going that morning.
Was it even that morning? He had no way of telling how long he'd been in this room, unconscious. It could have been anywhere from less than an hour, to a few days. Suddenly, Ekitai was felt with a very strong need to know the time, but had no way of figuring it out.
Whoever had done this knew what they were doing. Considering he was probably next in line to be Hokage, he was no pushover. Save for Jaku and Tousha, he was probably one of the strongest ninja in the village.
Maybe he was drugged.
He was probably drugged. He didn't feel as though he had been beaten or injured in any way.
So, yeah, it was probably some sort of drug.
And that fucking buzzing. At this point, Ekitai knew it had to be getting louder. It was getting louder, right? A second ago, he had been absolutely positive that it was getting louder, but once he started concentrating on it, it-
And then he saw it. He wasn't sure if it had been going on for his entire stay in this room, but, several yards away, on what he presumed to be a wall, was a red flash. A single, small, red flash.
And again.
Was the buzzing getting lou-
Again.
The light flashed, systematically, every minute. For the first twenty or so flashes, Ekitai counted the seconds between each one, trying to determine the time elapsed between them. And, every 60 seconds, on the nose, the red light flashed. He became absolutely entranced by it; After all, it was really the only thing in the room that he could focus on.
He began keeping track of the amount of flashes, and using this as a system to determine how much time was elapsing.
One minute.
Two minutes.
Five minutes.
Ten minutes.
Thirty minutes.
Sixty minutes.
One hundred twenty minutes.
Three hundred sixty minutes.
And, then, at last, after hours of watching the light, Ekitai fell asleep.
He awoke incredibly sore, considering he had just slept for several hours in what he was fairly sure was a wooden chair.
The buzzing.
The light!
Yes, his tiny, red savior. His distraction from the darkness, from the incessant buzzing all around him. For awhile, he became unconcerned with the noise, and was completely lost in counting his time.
One minute.
Two minutes.
Five minutes.
Twenty minutes.
Sixty minutes.
One hundred twenty minutes.
Apparently, time flies when you're keeping track, because Ekitai's internal clock was racing.
Three hundred sixty minutes.
Seven hundred twenty minutes.
One thousand four hundred forty minutes.
Two thousand eight hundred eighty minutes.
Five thousand seven hundred sixty minutes.
It was unbelievable; Several days had passed, and Ekitai continued to stare at his tiny flash, unable to break away from it. It became an addiction, the only relief he had.
Eleven thousand five hundred twenty minu- Did he see something move during that last flash, on the wall?
No. No. He didn't have time for that. He had to count. If he stopped counting, he'd lose track. He'd lose the only thing he had. He had to keep going, without distraction.
Twenty three thousand forty minutes.
Forty six thousand eighty minutes.
Ninety two thousand one hundred sixty minutes.
One hundred eighty four thousand three hundred twenty minutes.
Three hundred sixty eight thousand six hundred forty minutes.
Seven hundred thirty seven thousand two hundred eighty minutes.
One million four hundred seventy thousand five hundred sixty minu-
And Ekitai was asleep.
When he awoke, before restarting his counting, he did some quick math.
One million four hundred seventy five thousand five hundred sixty minutes was roughly twenty four thousand two hundred ninety two minutes.
One thousand twelve days.
Just over two and a half years.
For two and a half years, Ekitai sat in his chair, counting a light.
Two and a half years.
Two and a half fucking years.
He was going to die he-
One minute.
Two minutes.
Five minutes.
–
Ekitai completely lost track of all time. So many years, so many decades. It became pointless to count, and yet he did anyways. It became impossible to tell how many days were passing. The math became impossible to do.
He was going to die in this place.
He was going to die, and his red light, and his annoying buzzing, and his wooden chair were going to be just fine.
He was going to die, and no one would know.
He was going to die, and no one would care.
After being gone for so long anyways, everyone probably thought he was dead.
There was a good chance that Tousha had died of old age by now.
He had left nothing behind for anyone to remember him by.
His family was dead.
He had few friends.
He hadn't done anything memorable.
He had tried, yes, but his plans had not yet come to fruition.
No one would remember him.
He had done nothing memorable.
He simply wasted the last four fifths of his life in a room, in a chair, counting lights.
And then the flash.
Not, not a flash.
The light was on.
The entire room was flooded with maddening red light.
The first thing that Ekitai noticed was that the room was not nearly as big as he had thought. The darkness had seemed to exaggerate the size.
The second thing that Ekitai noticed was the source of the buzzing. All over the walls, all over the floor, were giant bugs.
Huge. Fucking. Bugs.
Each one was about the size of his thumb, and they buzzing.
Buzzing.
Buzzing.
Crawling.
They slowly began making their way from the wall to the floor. At first, they were just crawling over eachother, slowly working their way down, but eventually they began falling to the floor in clumps. For a few moments, Ekitai was so entranced by this that he didn't notice that the bugs already on the floor were slowly crawling towards him.
But, when the reached him, they didn't attack him like Ekitai was expecting. Instead, they began eating away at the floor. Consuming it. Devouring the tile beneath him. Slowly, he could feel the floor beneath him weaken. It started to buckle. As it did, the bugs swarmed through the cracks, devouring the floorboards from both sides. He could feel the floor shift beneath him and was absolutely helpless to do anything about it. Maybe, just maybe, this was it.
Maybe he'd be allowed to die, and be away from this wretched place.
Away from the darkness.
Away from the flashing, red light.
Away from the hideous bugs.
The floor collapsed completely, and Ekitai was falling. He was no longer in his chair, but was free falling, his limbs flailing. He tried to scream, but couldn't.
He couldn't see anything, but he knew that the ground was rushing up to meet him.
Rushing to allow him an escape from this horrid existence.
And then he hit the ground.
He waited for the pain to come, he waited for his consciousness to cease to exist. He waited for what felt like an eternity before opening his eyes, expecting to see nothing but darkness.
But there wasn't darkness.
Ekitai opened his eyes to what was actually a well lit room, with two men on either side of him. The man on his right was the local psychologist that he had made this appointment with; he had volunteered to be used in a genjutsu experiment. The man wanted to study how the human brain reacted to genjutsu.
Ekitai was paid for it, of course. He was't paid much, but he was still paid.
“Easy, Ekitai. That obviously took quite the toll on you.” That was the psychologist, who then turned to the genjutsu specialist. “Would you please leave the room? I'd like a moment with Ekitai.”
As the other shinobi left, Ekitai slowly sat up. “What do you need?”
“Well, first off, I'd like to thank you for your help. Second; You kept muttering some stuff during the genjutsu that I'd like to talk to you about. Considering you've helped me quite a bit during this, I'd like to offer you my services for free. However, I have another appointment to keep, and I can't really do this now.” He then handed Ekitai his card, and left the room.
Ekitai pocketed it before leaving, curious as to what he had said during the experiment.
Gogogentraining
Gogogentraining
| Sunakimi, Yozora | D-rank Ronin | Minor Country | #D2A846 | ▶ |
| Senju, Yamabiko | Genin | Konohagakure no Sato | #9370D8 | ▶ |
Gogogentraining
Ekitai showed up at his appointment with the psychologist a tad bit early, mostly because he had absolutely nothing else to do. He wasn't really sure that he needed the psychologist, but the guy insisted, but wouldn't tell him why. He tried to get in touch with him over the phone to get it sorted out, but any time he did, the psychologist was either away from the building doing research, or too busy with other appointments to take his call. Regardless, he was here now, and he'd figure out what the big deal was.
He sat in the lobby by himself; The only other person in the room was the receptionist, who didn't even seem to be doing anything of importance. After a few minutes, however, the psychologist stepped out into the waiting area and called Ekitai into his office, right on time.
“Ekitai, because of the nature of this, I'd like to again place you under a genjutsu. You seem to become, for whatever reason, rather free-speaking while under the influence of them. It may be because you have some particular weakness to them, but that's not what I'm concerned about. You seem to have a sort of deep seated issue that I'd like to help you work out. Are you fine with that? It wouldn't take any more than a few minutes.”
“Sure, but...could you please tell me what it is I said during the last time I saw you? I think I have the right to know a least that.”
“I'd much rather wait until after the genjutsu, if you don't mind. It would be easier and take less time to do it all in one sweep. Now, If you'll just relax while my assistant puts you under his genjutsu...”
And then Ekitai was back in that wretched, black room.
Back in the chair.
Back in the darkness.
Back to counting the light.
Until, just like last time, the light flooded the room and the bugs began to eat away at the floor. The wood beneath him buckled and collapsed, again causing him to free fall through endless, open darkness. But this time, when he felt himself hit the ground, he felt the pain. Not enough to kill him, or even keep him from moving, but it fucking hurt.
He slowly opened his eyes. He really just wanted to take a nap, there, on the ground, but his shinobi instincts told him that that was a really, really bad idea.
Which was a good thing, because if he had taken a nap, he probably would have wound up dead. The sky, for some reason, was full of smoke.
As he slowly brought himself to his feet, the source of the smoke became obvious; All of the trees, all of the buildings surrounding him were covered in flames. He couldn't really tell what the buildings had looked like before, but he found it safe to assume that he was in Konoha, considering that was where he lived and all.
The weird part was that he didn't see anyone else, living or otherwise. The streets were devoid of all but ruins and flames.
And what appeared to be a giant, moving mountain in the distance. It was obviously something living by the way it moved, but he couldn't really make out what it was. A summon, perhaps, of the person that had done this damage. Where was everyone, and why weren't they doing anything? Surely this thing hadn't done so much damage that he'd killed and removed all traces of the shinobi within the village, leaving only Ekitai.
But, if Ekitai was the only one left, he was going to have to do something about this giant, destructive monster.
Maybe the village had been evacuated?
..Where was Tousha?
Where was Jaku?
Well, regardless, without his mentors around, he'd have to step up to the plate and beat some giant mountain ass.
Ekitai took off like a bat out of hell. He ran through ruined streets, vaulted over flaming piles of debris, always keeping an eye open for injured people or someone that might be alive enough to help. This entire thing didn't make any sense. What had happened? Why was he the only one around? Where were his fellow clan mates?
Ahead of him, he could see his gigantic target looming. It had appeared to have stopped, and was facing away from him, unmoving. The only thing he could make out in the haze were the giant's large, black, unforgiving eyes.
As he got closer, he started seeing the bodies. Stacked, by the hundreds, all of them sharing his dark blue hair. None of them sharing the life in his eyes. He stopped for a moment to inspect the bodies, looking for survivors, but he didn't have time to stick around for long. His shinobi instinct was pushing him forward towards the goal. He'd have time to grieve later; Right now, he needed to kill this thing before it did any more damage.
The closer he got to his giant, the thicker the smoke became. He couldn't make out the faces on the bodies surrounding him, but he could make out vague outlines of the corpses that littered the ground around him. He was running full speed when, suddenly, he tripped and fell.
He scrambled across the ground, trying to figure out what it was that had snagged his foot. And, when he found it, he felt grief sweep over him. Huge, heavy, undeniable grief. Staring up at him, dead, and cold, was the body of Jaku. And, beside him, the body of his best friend and Hokage, Tousha.
He didn't have time to cry, however, because just as he was standing up from his fall, a large gust of wind blew through the area. The wind carried a torrent of sand; A sandstorm? In Konoha? He wasn't as concerned with the hows as much as he was the whos. And, when the wind settled, that question was answered, for the small storm carried with it the smoke that had clouded his vision, giving him a full view of the monstrosity before him.
The Ichibi.
It stared down at him, but didn't move.
It only laughed.
A terrible, terrifying laugh that would break the morale of even the most hardened shinobi, and Ekitai was no exception. He couldn't bring himself to look it in the eye. It had killed the Ruisan clan.
It had killed Tousha and Jaku; The two men that Ekitai aimed to be as strong as, but paled in comparison to.
How did he stand a chance against this thing?
He didn't.
So he stood there, for what seemed like an eternity, the booming laugh of Shukaku raging overhead.
It didn't end.
It didn't let up.
It didn't falter.
It was there, and would be there forever, constantly reminding Ekitai of how he wasn't good enough.
He wasn't good enough to save his clan, his family.
Nor would he be good enough to save anyone else, or his village.
He was pathetic.
Weak.
Incompetent.
Frail.
And the monster in front of him knew that. Knew that, to the very core, despite how hard Ekitai tried, how hard he trained, how many skills he learned, he knew that Ekitai would never be good enough.
He'd never be good enough save his family.
Nor would he ever be good enough to save anyone else from a similar event.
He might as well be dead.
But the Ichibi wouldn't give him death. No, that would be too easy. He found it much more enjoyable to simply laugh and watch Ekitai squirm in his own insecurities. The Ichibi turned away from Ekitai, and slowly, menacingly, walked off into the distance, laughing the entire way.
Leaving Ekitai alone to rot in his own sense of failure, only the echos of Shukaku's laughter on his mind to keep him company.
And then the genjutsu broke.
Ekitai opened his eyes, now completely aware that the series of previous events were only an illusion.
Jaku and Tousha were still alive. Jaku was on vacation, and Tousha was still leading the village.
The Ruisan clan, however, had still been killed.
“Ekitai, do you understand what the two series of events, the dark room, and the Ichibi attack represented?”
“Some fucked up shit that you put me through to better understand the limitations of the human mind?” Ekitai crossed his arms over his chest, tired of wasting time with this.
The defensive tone in his voice, however, caused the psychologist to frown. “No, Ekitai. They represent your biggest fears, isolation and weakness, respectively.”
“And what do you know about my biggest fears?”
“Honestly? Not much. Which is why I'd like to continue to see you. You obviously have some serious issues that you need to get over.”
“Look, I don't think I'm interested, but if I am, I'll call and make an appointment, okay?” Ekitai then stood, and exited the room without so much as a goodbye.
He sat in the lobby by himself; The only other person in the room was the receptionist, who didn't even seem to be doing anything of importance. After a few minutes, however, the psychologist stepped out into the waiting area and called Ekitai into his office, right on time.
“Ekitai, because of the nature of this, I'd like to again place you under a genjutsu. You seem to become, for whatever reason, rather free-speaking while under the influence of them. It may be because you have some particular weakness to them, but that's not what I'm concerned about. You seem to have a sort of deep seated issue that I'd like to help you work out. Are you fine with that? It wouldn't take any more than a few minutes.”
“Sure, but...could you please tell me what it is I said during the last time I saw you? I think I have the right to know a least that.”
“I'd much rather wait until after the genjutsu, if you don't mind. It would be easier and take less time to do it all in one sweep. Now, If you'll just relax while my assistant puts you under his genjutsu...”
And then Ekitai was back in that wretched, black room.
Back in the chair.
Back in the darkness.
Back to counting the light.
Until, just like last time, the light flooded the room and the bugs began to eat away at the floor. The wood beneath him buckled and collapsed, again causing him to free fall through endless, open darkness. But this time, when he felt himself hit the ground, he felt the pain. Not enough to kill him, or even keep him from moving, but it fucking hurt.
He slowly opened his eyes. He really just wanted to take a nap, there, on the ground, but his shinobi instincts told him that that was a really, really bad idea.
Which was a good thing, because if he had taken a nap, he probably would have wound up dead. The sky, for some reason, was full of smoke.
As he slowly brought himself to his feet, the source of the smoke became obvious; All of the trees, all of the buildings surrounding him were covered in flames. He couldn't really tell what the buildings had looked like before, but he found it safe to assume that he was in Konoha, considering that was where he lived and all.
The weird part was that he didn't see anyone else, living or otherwise. The streets were devoid of all but ruins and flames.
And what appeared to be a giant, moving mountain in the distance. It was obviously something living by the way it moved, but he couldn't really make out what it was. A summon, perhaps, of the person that had done this damage. Where was everyone, and why weren't they doing anything? Surely this thing hadn't done so much damage that he'd killed and removed all traces of the shinobi within the village, leaving only Ekitai.
But, if Ekitai was the only one left, he was going to have to do something about this giant, destructive monster.
Maybe the village had been evacuated?
..Where was Tousha?
Where was Jaku?
Well, regardless, without his mentors around, he'd have to step up to the plate and beat some giant mountain ass.
Ekitai took off like a bat out of hell. He ran through ruined streets, vaulted over flaming piles of debris, always keeping an eye open for injured people or someone that might be alive enough to help. This entire thing didn't make any sense. What had happened? Why was he the only one around? Where were his fellow clan mates?
Ahead of him, he could see his gigantic target looming. It had appeared to have stopped, and was facing away from him, unmoving. The only thing he could make out in the haze were the giant's large, black, unforgiving eyes.
As he got closer, he started seeing the bodies. Stacked, by the hundreds, all of them sharing his dark blue hair. None of them sharing the life in his eyes. He stopped for a moment to inspect the bodies, looking for survivors, but he didn't have time to stick around for long. His shinobi instinct was pushing him forward towards the goal. He'd have time to grieve later; Right now, he needed to kill this thing before it did any more damage.
The closer he got to his giant, the thicker the smoke became. He couldn't make out the faces on the bodies surrounding him, but he could make out vague outlines of the corpses that littered the ground around him. He was running full speed when, suddenly, he tripped and fell.
He scrambled across the ground, trying to figure out what it was that had snagged his foot. And, when he found it, he felt grief sweep over him. Huge, heavy, undeniable grief. Staring up at him, dead, and cold, was the body of Jaku. And, beside him, the body of his best friend and Hokage, Tousha.
He didn't have time to cry, however, because just as he was standing up from his fall, a large gust of wind blew through the area. The wind carried a torrent of sand; A sandstorm? In Konoha? He wasn't as concerned with the hows as much as he was the whos. And, when the wind settled, that question was answered, for the small storm carried with it the smoke that had clouded his vision, giving him a full view of the monstrosity before him.
The Ichibi.
It stared down at him, but didn't move.
It only laughed.
A terrible, terrifying laugh that would break the morale of even the most hardened shinobi, and Ekitai was no exception. He couldn't bring himself to look it in the eye. It had killed the Ruisan clan.
It had killed Tousha and Jaku; The two men that Ekitai aimed to be as strong as, but paled in comparison to.
How did he stand a chance against this thing?
He didn't.
So he stood there, for what seemed like an eternity, the booming laugh of Shukaku raging overhead.
It didn't end.
It didn't let up.
It didn't falter.
It was there, and would be there forever, constantly reminding Ekitai of how he wasn't good enough.
He wasn't good enough to save his clan, his family.
Nor would he be good enough to save anyone else, or his village.
He was pathetic.
Weak.
Incompetent.
Frail.
And the monster in front of him knew that. Knew that, to the very core, despite how hard Ekitai tried, how hard he trained, how many skills he learned, he knew that Ekitai would never be good enough.
He'd never be good enough save his family.
Nor would he ever be good enough to save anyone else from a similar event.
He might as well be dead.
But the Ichibi wouldn't give him death. No, that would be too easy. He found it much more enjoyable to simply laugh and watch Ekitai squirm in his own insecurities. The Ichibi turned away from Ekitai, and slowly, menacingly, walked off into the distance, laughing the entire way.
Leaving Ekitai alone to rot in his own sense of failure, only the echos of Shukaku's laughter on his mind to keep him company.
And then the genjutsu broke.
Ekitai opened his eyes, now completely aware that the series of previous events were only an illusion.
Jaku and Tousha were still alive. Jaku was on vacation, and Tousha was still leading the village.
The Ruisan clan, however, had still been killed.
“Ekitai, do you understand what the two series of events, the dark room, and the Ichibi attack represented?”
“Some fucked up shit that you put me through to better understand the limitations of the human mind?” Ekitai crossed his arms over his chest, tired of wasting time with this.
The defensive tone in his voice, however, caused the psychologist to frown. “No, Ekitai. They represent your biggest fears, isolation and weakness, respectively.”
“And what do you know about my biggest fears?”
“Honestly? Not much. Which is why I'd like to continue to see you. You obviously have some serious issues that you need to get over.”
“Look, I don't think I'm interested, but if I am, I'll call and make an appointment, okay?” Ekitai then stood, and exited the room without so much as a goodbye.
| Sunakimi, Yozora | D-rank Ronin | Minor Country | #D2A846 | ▶ |
| Senju, Yamabiko | Genin | Konohagakure no Sato | #9370D8 | ▶ |