I Just Stopped By... (P)

The town wasn't much of a place to be caught in, the population was dismal at best, and those that made it up were little more than a nuisance that existed solely to occupy space and had no value as a human being, assuming human beings had a value. Iron hadn't bothered to don a mask of flesh this time, preferring to just wear a simple party mask of an oni which saved time and effort for the time being. It wasn't like the location was anywhere near any kind of threat, and as far as the record was concerned, a good dozen personas had committed his crimes, and he was still a registered ninja in Konoha on one of them so it wouldn't be difficult to divert attention if it did come up. With all of this in mind, Iron reclined in a nearly empty bar, laying against the bar table in his stool and lighting a fresh cigar.

The man behind the counter, cleaning out the bottles with a towel, something that all bar tenders seemed to do at the oddest times, spoke in a gruff voice to condemn his actions. "Theres no smoking here." After saying his tidbit he returned to his work, not noting the adjusted angle of Iron's head as he turned to look at the man. Underneath the mask he was wondering just who exactly told a masked man what he could or couldn't do, that was asking for trouble.

Iron lit the cigar anyhow, and placed the tip inside the mouth slit of his mask so that he could properly enjoy it before turning around and spitting a puff of smoke and flame at the bartender, burning the rag in his hands to crisp. "I don't remember asking you for your opinion on my habits, what village do you serve again?" Iron said as the man blew the fog of ash and dust away from him and placed his hands on the table, looking Iron straight through the mask and into his bright green eyes.

"I don't serve, I'm a civillian, one who looks down on the whole ninja system and how people like you abuse your powers because you think you can frighten everyone else into doing your bidding." The man retorted, reaching out to slap the cigar out from his lips. Iron wasn't very keen on allowing that to happen, and with a quick burst of chakra hardened the cigar to a more fitting strength and the crunch of a few fingers that had expected to hit something lighter made his day.

He pulled his elbows up ontop of the bar and shoved a single taloned finger through the man's shirt, raising him up and holding him aloft. "Really? That's curious, I don't serve either, so if I was you I would shut it." Iron said as he lowered the man's head to the solid wooden counter that formed the bar so that the sound of further crunching would make an appearance in the song being composed. His talons dug into the man's skull, blood being drawn and pouring down onto the table and through the man's strands of loose hair.

"You're nothing but a body holding a soul, and bodies have no value except to extract souls or to be extracted of souls. So to someone like me, an extractor, you're value is about as little as a single drop of your blood, virtually none..." Iron continued as he threw the man, with a twist of his wrist and a swinging motion, down the surface and into the wall of the building, the thud and crash of a body breaking things on its way before hitting a nice solid surface brought a smile to Iron's face. He was reminded of his goal, and was also reminded that he'd yet to enjoy his cigar.

The marks that were within his eyes, gradually flared out, flames licking around his face and displaying the anger in his mind on his body. Iron inhaled deeply from the cigar held bettween his lips and then, once having cooled down, expelled the common materials from the other side. The marks receded back into his eyes, and he looked at the crumpled body straining to get itself back on its feet after suffering severe spinal damage. He sighed, "Cockroaches really have trouble dying..."

"I'm considering how best to go about this, and i'm pretty bored with the usual methods, and since you were so responsive to my initial cigar burst, how about we see if I can't make that bigger..." Iron commented as he took the old cigar out of his mouth, throwing it behind him and allowing the flames to persist and start on the wooden table it landed on. A fresh cigar was withdrawn and placed to his mouth, lit, and using the same principle used to blow the harmless debris before, he launched a more powerful blast of flames and ash that made its way to the bar tender in a flash. With the howling as the body was set alight and the pain became more and more unbearable, the man managed to further agitate Iron.

He waltzed over and seeing the man try to claw his own flesh, or the flames on it, away from himself, he quickly withdrew his halberd from the strap on his back and brought it down, cleaving the man's neck an putting him out of his misery as the flames simmered away leaving a hole in the wall which Iron stepped through. There was no crowd outside, and this was disappointing to him, usually they were drawn like a moth to a flame when the sounds of pain were let loose into the sky. "Such a pain...oh well, I can't win all of them"

Iron shrugged as he resheathed his weapon, bringing one hand up in the air and holding it in place as he closed his eyes, allowing his chakra to focus more precisely since he was foregoing the use of handsigns for such a simple jutsu. The earth begin to rise, a solid wall erupting in a fluid motion that jerked only when brought to its end, causing a few loose stones to tumble down. Iron ignored them as he discarded the previous cigar, drew up a new one, and smiled. "I do love testing my limits..."

With a third blast of the cigar's contents, the wall was sent sliding backwards by the created flames and force, the moving wall of earth bulldozing over the building like it was little more than a stick assembly. The building was split into parts and the parts in the wall's way were crushed, Iron smiling throughout the whole process. He lowered his hand with a sweep and the wall ceased and fell apart, the flames catching the building and then sprinkling out towards the others in the city.

Now the screams came, and the others arrived like the moths they were. The grin extended out even wider as he examined himself in a puddle of blood from the barkeeper, the oni mask smiling back at him. He liked the irony of it, and spoke aloud as he walked off to find another town to tear apart for souls, "Death must be so pleased with me..."

Spoiler:

With the burning town in his rear-view mirror, assuming he had one to view with, Iron reached into the pocket of his traveling robes and pulled out a box. The Oparu-clan label was on the box, a reminder of the abilities that gave him his strength, the former Konoha ninja, Camuraki Oparu, turned into the criminal ninja, Iron. Or as Zakuza was insistent on calling him, Y, even though the name lacked the same familiarity as his old name.

The box contained the latest additions to his weapons, and they were quite a chore to create and obtain the materials to create them. With the use of his recent techniques, he was quite interested in finally examining his new equipment. He opened up the box with his metal fingers, if he only had feeling in his metal limbs he might be better able to savor the moment, but he lacked such a thing and he didn't wish to use the chakra needed to feel an object. As the box was pried open Iron walked down the path aimlessly, as long as he moved forwards he'd probably run into Zakuza, he always seemed to be nearby, whether he wanted him to be or not.

He sighed, Z lacked the same type of taste in vices as Iron had, and refused to so much as make an attempt to take a cigar, he even offered to give him the safe cigars that weren't likely to kill him if he didn't watch the fuse. That was part of the fun, explosive cigars were he favorite kind to smoke, nothing said 'I'm Not Screwing Around' like throwing a cigar into an ash tray and watching it detonate into a sizable explosion taking any nearby objects with it to oblivion. Iron shrugged, his loss.

Back to his mind, Iron pulled out the first of his recently acquired cigars, the Tsuchinoko. It was loaded full of all the things Iron loved, poisons, toxins, tobacco, and more explosive power than a block of C-4. The cigar was abnormally large and thick, with a cursive and fancifully written Y label since 'Iron' wouldn't fit on a cigar label. He envisioned the terror and destruction that awaited his precious cigar, but he had two more to go over so he placed it back in the box and retrieve a smaller cigar.

He examined the cigar, he'd packed the cigar full of miniature light bombs he'd painfully assembled by hand. It was a chore and he still remembered the blinding pain from his accidents while assembling it. It was a pain, but the finished product was well worth it, any ninja who was deprived of his site would find himself in quite a dilemma.

Iron deposited the light cigar and pulled out the last of his new cigars, the only one who he would never dare to bring to his lips. He'd have to admit that he assembled it out of spare parts, metal bits, and thus it was hardly fit for consumption without a very painful death or vomiting out blood. Every inch of the thing was a metal death trap, but when this little baby went boom, death would be a blessing (not that it wasn't) and welcomed as an escape from the pain of a thousand metal shards sticking into your body.

He smiled and put his cigars back into their box, pulling out a less lethal and perfectly normally cigarette and putting it between his lips, lighting it with his lighter, and walking as the smoke wafted in the wind. Iron smiled as he stopped, there was no need to 'sense' his presence, Z was just an agent he knew was nearby, there was no energy source, no logic, no reason, he just knew. He pulled out his hand and slowly counted down on his fingers which curled into his palm as he counted them off, "1...2...3...4..."

“ Looks like someone needs to lighten up…” Z sighed as he sat on his perch. This perch however, was a giant mountain that towered over all of iron country and almost reached the clouds. As he was sitting there, Z had been watching Y with a chain bat that hovered around the area. The incident with the bartender was something that bothered Z the most. Y should know that the akatsuki had taken Iron Country over years ago, meaning any town in it was under their control. The akatsuki that Z once knew had dispersed, leaving only two people in charge of the country, Y and Z. There used to be an X in the group, but that time was long gone. Now that Z thought about it, he couldn’t remember what happened to X. ‘ She must of wandered off somewhere in the world when I went into hiding…’ Z told himself as he continued to watch Y.

It seemed that Y had some sort of unknown box from somewhere and he was beginning to pry it open. “ New toys?! I have new toys too!” Z squealed as he ran inside the base to grab his box. He had returned outside just as he saw Y beginning to count. ‘Must be my queue!” Z smirked, running towards the cliff he was previously perched on. Z kept running until he reached the edge of the cliff. Right before his feet fell through the air, he leapt up into the air and started careening down. At a distance, he would look like a comet coming from the sky, but Y would know exactly what it was. Roaring loudly, Z impacted the ground, leaving a large crater in his wake.

Throwing his box out of the crater, Z laughed and stood up. “ I noticed you got new toys, me too!” He said to Y as he climbed out of the crater and picked the box up with his tail. It was a large box, about 3 feet long and 3 feet wide. It’s size alone would make it heavy, but the equipment inside is what added the real bulk. Holding the box in front of him with his tail, Z punch through it and pulled a large device from inside. The device was shaped like a large gear and had a Z carved into the front of it. “ Chakra control devices from snow country, there like awesome handcuffs! These babies prevent the captor from using their chakra, and it looks awesome!” Z explained as he tossed the device to Y.

Punching another hole in the box, Z withdrew a large cylinder from inside. “ And these…. These are for me. Iridium rod disks. When shot onto the ground, they expand to a full sized rod of iridium.” Z said while tossing the cylinder up and down. Quickly, Z loaded the cylinder into a slot on his shoulder and aimed his arm in the other direction. “ BANG!” Z said as he shot four disks over into a nearby field. The disks flew through the air and upon impact with the ground, expanded into ten foot rods and stuck into the ground. “ It gets better! I even made jutsu to go along with these rod disks!” Z noted as he made a gun shape with his hand. “ BANG!” He screamed as a bolt of lightning soared towards the rods. The bolt hit one rod and then started to circulated around the others, making a cage of electricity.


With a large grin, Z turned around to Iron and chuckled. “ So, what do you think of my new toys? Pretty neat eh?” Z said to Y. “ By the way, are you aware that the town you just finished with was one of OUR towns? Why must you terrorize the citizens? The less people alive, the less money we get, and money is great. It’s almost as satisfying as a kill, and cleaner!”.


666 words O.o

Spoiler:

Iron sighed aloud, had to make a flashy entrance, and he complained about Iron's lack of discreet entrances and exits. And of course he knew it was one of the towns under their supposed ownership, though he'd never had to back up those claims with force because nobody else ever visited. Iron put a hand to his head and clawed into his skin, little trickles of blood coming out, "You're so stressful sometimes...you really needed to make a hole in the ground for an entrance? And I kill whatever looks like its still alive, pissing me off is just bonus points, and if I'm not sure its alive, i'll double check and kill it. You're an exception, but you seem intent to push your boundaries everyday don't you..."

He set out his halberd to lean on and looked from piece to piece, going over them with his eyes and examining them for potential flaws in the craftsmenship. Both Z and Y came from blacksmith occupied clans, so it wasn't a challenge for either of them to forge new equipment and both also had large amounts of chakra for testing them, though Z just seemed to ooze with the stuff. Iron pointed at the handcuffs, "Those I don't like, why bring them back alive when you can kill them? When was the last time we had a client who wanted somebody back alive, they don't care, they usually want them dead anyhow. As for the rest of these," Iron said, reaching out his hand to gesture at the various rods corsing with lightning through them, ",you probably didn't need to go through all that trouble to fence someone in, I mean look!"

Iron put a hand out flat, "This is the top." and then reached over with his other hand, reforming it into a miniature model of himself in a few seconds. "This is me, see? Don't I look dashing?" Iron then manipulated the miniature model to reach up above into the hand held out flat above itself and tear it open before walking out. "And that's how you do it!" With his demonstration complete, Iron reformed his hands back into their natural shape and resumed his previous thoughts.

He set himself down on the ground, in plated armor it was a lot more difficult than it was for an unarmored ninja. Iron, once in a sitting position pulled out his cigar box and opened up the lid, allowing his companion to examine the contents. "They're just fresh cigars, one of them just has more material per ounce in it, the other has lightbombs stuffed in it, and the last one has metal shards. All modifications of my basic exploding cigar, though I do prefer the basic...."

Iron inhaled the current cigar and then spat out a ring of smoke, "The one in my lips right now is just normal, no explosives, no weapons, just a normal smoke. Figured I've used up my fair share of explosives today blowing up the town you're so upset about...what use is money to me anyhow? I want metal, I mine it, I want services, I take them, I want food, I find it, so what use for money could a guy like me possibly have? Be realistic, you've known me long enough..."

Spoiler:

" You know your a kill joy right? It's always ' IM GOING TO KILL PEOPLE!' with you. Every heard of something called fun? Stuff to do besides making weapons and killing whatever locks eyes with you? You annoy me sometimes, you didn't even compliment my entrance..." Z said in a sniffling voice as he wiped an imaginary tear from his eye. " Just kidding with you, although I don't think you can even laugh.... unless it's an evil laugh, like a ' Ha, I killed your mother' laugh... annnnyyywwaaaayysss... Bringing a target back alive isn't really our thing, but what if it's required? Versatility, the more we can offer, the more we can get." Z replied quickly.

Watching Y's example of someone tear out of Z's lightning cage made Z start to laugh silently. " Not everyone has metal hands like you, not even me. For everyone else... this happens." Z laughed, bringing out a small figure from his shell. The figure Z had brought out, was the hokage action figure from his action figure set back inside. " Oh no, im trapped in a cage! Wait! I can just run through it!" Z said, using his voice changer to mimic a girl's voice. With a flick of his wrist, Z chucked the action figure towards the gate of lightning. The action figure raced through the air like a deadly kunai and slammed into the lightning onthe gate as if it was a solid object. The action figure rumbled for a bit until it exploded in a small puff of smoke. At this point Z couldn't hold his laughter in any longer and let out a blast of noise and stomping.

Clearing his throat and straightening his back, Z diverted his attention to Y's weapons. He had listened to the explanation of them but still found them boring. " Well, a cigar is a cigar to me. Whether it explodes or not doesn't make a difference. Explosions are something i'm fond of using, although they are fun to watch. Every genin can make an explosion with a simple tag, so an S-rank ninja using them seems so.... un-original... Wanna see something a genin can't do?" Z said as he paced the snow around him. Putting his hand in his shell once again, Z brought out an unusually large bottle of wine. Holding it in his hand, Z charged it with his deadly electrical chakra until it exploded, sending glass everywhere. " Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh" Was the sound Z made as he inhaled the air. " Alchoholic air, bound to make anyone in the vicinity crazy as a baby on chakra pills." Z said as he inhaled again. " Oh oh! Even better!" Z squeeled, taking another bottle from his shell and chugging it down. After taking a big breath, Z turned and exhaled his breath onto the snow. The snow intermediately melted along with some ice underneath it. " He he" Z snickered.

Z had been having so much fun he forgot to answer Y's question about money. Deciding he wanted to deal with his lightning cage first, Z channeled some chakra on his finger and touched another one of his fingers as he turned towards the cage. Pointing at the cage made all of the lightning from it start to tear away form the gate and into Z's finger. " Thats another new one." Z noted, turning back to Y. " Think of this money gathering as a dark harvest. What happens to the world if all of the money is in one place? Chaos, confusion, death, all of these things. Then realization that they have two choices, work for the party with the money, or revolt against them. If the later happens I think you'll be happy. More war, death, and confusion. If the other thing happens, I'll be happy. I like being king. This isn't my finished plan, but you get the jist of it right?" Z lectured Y.

Spoiler:

Iron snickered and reached his fingers around the cigar in his mouth, pulling it out and pressing it against the armor on Z, putting it out and leaving an ash mark. He had comprehension of what exactly happened while he was ignorant of the world, people died, and Iron wanted to be responsible for every one of those deaths. The world was ripe for cleansing, and there was little time for joking and merryment, but Z would never understand that, he was too childish. "I laugh and play when work is done, and until everybody is dead, work isn't done. You figure with your size and all that empty space in your head you could install a turret or something...at least I get the job done without wasting time. What happened last time? You took two hours just to wipe the floor with some runt, should've taken three seconds, what were you doing, playing patti-cake? Answer that with a yes and i'm just going to gut you here..."

He rose up onto his feet and put a hand to Z's lips, "If you make anymore noise you're going to start an avalanche or something, I mean really, how funny is it to watch the Hokage burn up in an electric fence?..." Iron paused for a moment, a smile was creeping over his face as he thought about it. A nice little fry of the Hokage wouldn't be so bad, that would be very amusing, he could picture the screaming, the howling, and the pain. He was about to let out a laugh but stopped himself, cleared his throat, and continued, ",okay, it's pretty damn funny, i'll give you that..."

"As for that comment about what an S Rank Missing Ninja can or can't do, Genin level techniques are rather effective at getting the job done sometimes, for example, here's an Academy level technique..." Iron said as he drew a talon across his face, bringing out a line of blood, before opening up his palm and allowing a small swarm of mantises to emerge and hop around until they were perched on his shoulders. He nuzzled the mantids to his left and then turned to Z, "Aren't they just adorable? If i'd sent them out after you, you wouldn't be able to maintain the focus neccesary to even generate lightning, so the level of technique is hardly important, you know as well as I do that neither of us have scrolls full of S Rank jutsu, they're just not that useful, I can count the number of forbidden techniques I have on one hand..."

Iron presented an open hand and then lowered all of his fingers but two, "Two, that's all I have, but its not like I need them, because I have a box full of tricks and explosives. So I suppose you're right, money is useful for something, more explosive powder..."

Spoiler:

Spoiler:

Seeing Y actually laugh at something brought a smile to Z's face, although it wouldn't be seen under his visor. Z wasn't sure anyone knew his emotions except for joy, since that was his default one. " You know Y, I could go for an avalanche right now. That would be pretty fun. I can't seriously be afraid of anything that would be so fun." Z said as he pointing his finger at the top of the mountain and pretended to shoot a bolt of lightning. The mantids around Y made a funny thought go through Z's head. A loud voice in Z's head was telling him to let all of his mosquitoes eat Y's mantids, but another voice in Z's head told him that Y would probably cry over it and create a bigger problem. Without knowing, Z had let a small swarm of mosquitoes start to fly around him and buzz loudly. Shaking his head, Z opened his cape and allowed the mosquitoes to fly back inside and quite down before placing a hand on his chin and starting to think.

Without saying a word, Z leaped into the air and started to roll up into a ball. As he did this, he began to surround himself with electrical energy, making him look like a large orb of lightning soaring upwards into the sky. Discharging the energy from around his body, Z emerged from the ball of lightning and landed on a rock on the side of the mountain. " Well, that was spontaneous..." Z said as he peered below him. Jumping rock to rock, Z bounded back down the mountain to Y.

“ What were we even talking about anyways? I’ve seemed to of lost track of the conversation… hmm. Well, I did send letters to the major villages. That means we might be getting some action soon. Maybe some fighting, some killing… some fighting… new playmates… all that good stuff.” Z said as he punched the air. “ I think I have another jutsu idea…” Z whispered to himself as he drew his tail from inside his cloak to his side. Clenching his fist, Z sent a current of lightning inside his tail and made it light up with black electricity. Using his chakra control skills, Z then made the lightning split up into five separate chains. ‘ Well isn’t that a dandy, I’m fond of lightning and chains. Putting them together is amazing.’ Z thought as he laid his tail along with the additional ones on his shoulder.

“ Before we continue, I think we should move to the roof. I have something I need to do that requires a high altitude. A few new S-rank jutsu. Forbidden Musami techniques to be exact. Lets go.” Z told Y as he began to run up the side of the mountain. On the outside, Z seemed calm about these new jutsu, but on the inside, he couldn’t wait use them. When Z reached the top of the mountain he sat on the same spot he had perched before and started to call his mosquitoes to gather around him.

Spoiler:

“ What were we even talking about anyways? I’ve seemed to of lost track of the conversation… hmm. Well, I did send letters to the major villages. That means we might be getting some action soon. Maybe some fighting, some killing… some fighting… new playmates… all that good stuff.” Z said as he punched the air. “ Dating
badoo
I think I have another jutsu idea…” Z whispered to himself as he drew his tail from inside his cloak to his side. Clenching his fist, Z sent a current of lightning inside his tail and made it light up with black electricity. Using his chakra control skills, Z then made the lightning split up into five separate chains. ‘ Well isn’t that a dandy, I’m fond of lightning and chains. Putting them together is amazing.’ Z thought as he laid his tail along with the additional ones on his shoulder.