The mission started out like any other. Syaoran Masamune had just set foot outside the village, ready to head for Merchant's castle and bring down Chaos. Things had even been going fairly well. The weather was mild, he had all his affairs in order, he even had more information on the mission than just about anyone in the village. All in all, a very good start. So something had to go wrong...
Masamune strolled down the well-worn path and chewed an energy bar. He looked up at the puffy white clouds overhead and reflected on the events of the past couple months. First off, He'd died. Chaos had attacked the village, and revealed his affiliation with the White Hand to Masamune, and only Masamune. He'd been about to come to the 2nd Hanekage with the news when Chaos jumped him. The ensuing battle had blown up the Ichijin grounds, badly burned Chaos, and ended with Masamune immolating himself.
The spirit-creature, Djinn, to whom Masamune now owed a great debt, had resurrected him, in exchange for his soul. Masamune had secretly returned from the dead, and trailed Chaos for weeks, gathering intel and putting White hand patrols out of commission all over.
He'd finally caught up to Chaos, and died again. This time, the price for his resurrection was three tasks, a debt Masamune still owed and one that Djinn was pressuring him to fulfill. Chaos had gotten away while Masamune was dazed by Insanity.
And now, more recently, One of Chaos' vine puppets had shown up and taunted Masamune with a shard of Rage, the sword Masamune wore at his left hip. Masamune had dropped the puppet and retrieved the shard. Rage had informed him there were more shards to be found, but that was a secondary concern. Masamune had worked out the location of Chaos' base and was on his way to put an end to him this very moment.
"I'm on my way, Jimetsuogi" he said to the clouds, a self assured smirk on his face.
And then of course, it happened.
Crrrraaaack!
Masamune, lost in thought, had strayed off to the side of the path, and stepped on the rotted wooden cover of an old well. He was shocked out of his thought as he fell through, hitting his head on the sidewall as he fell. Luckily, the well had no water in it, so he didn't drown. Of course, that meant he hit the sandy bottom full-on. Blackness enveloped him.
Masamune came to much later. Looking up, he could see the night sky at the top of the shaft. He'd been out most of a day, at least.
"Figures.Cursing, he got to his feet. Or tried, anyhow, as his body screamed in protest and his head swam the second he started moving. He settled for a sitting position and assessed his injuries. Bruises, scrapes, one of his arms and three of his ribs felt broken. He put his hand to the throbbing knot on his skull and it came away streaked with half-dried blood. He felt kind of dizzy, but at least his legs still worked, he could go back to the village for help. Of course they would never let him live this down, but it was better than staying here until he starved.
He rose to his feet, moving more slowly this time, and looked up at the edge of the well, high above him. A good thirty feet, it looked like. No problem for a decent ninja, even injured as he was. He tucked his bad arm tight to his chest, wincing in pain, and grabbed hold of the wall. Running chakra through his figers and toes, he climbed the steep shaft like a three-legged frog, the lack of hand- and foot-holds inconsequential. He was almost to the top when he heard voices. He stopped and listened.
"Remember, the one we're after is called 'Syaoran Masamune'" Said one, a soft spoken yet definitely masculine voice.
"No need to remind us of that, Wes. We all know his name; and what he looks like, what he can do, and what Djinn will do to us if we don't get him." responded the second, a feminine voice tinged with bitterness.
Masamune almost fell off the wall when he heard 'Djinn.' So these were thugs sent to off him for shirking his obligations to the Flamelord.
"I'd forgotten, boss." Said a third, deep, booming voice, in what seemed an attempt to console the first speaker, Wes.
"Nobody expected you to remember, Renga. We don't exactly keep you around for your razor intellect" scolded the female.
The voices faded as their owners got out of earshot, and Masamune was able to hear no more of their whispered conspiracy.
He waited a few moments until he was sure they were past, and drew himself out of the well.
To find himself surrounded by black-clad figures standing around the well.
"Ah." Was all Masamune could say. "Crap."
"Lookie here, boys." said the man to his right. Wes, to judge by his voice. "Us on our way to find Masamune and he goes and finds us first." he gloated.
"Don't look like much." Said deep voiced Renga, behind Masamune.
"Took a tumble, did we?" cooed the female, a familiar looking redhead kneeling in front of him.
"Just a little" he said, pulling his legs out of the well and promptly throwing up on the grass.
"Indeed. A lesser man would have been killed by a fall like that." said Wes, a hint of admiration in his voice.
"Yeah, lucky me. Now I get to be killed by a bunch of Djinn's thugs instead." Masamune said bitterly.
This elicited laughter from the group, minus the fourth one, who up 'til now had just stood there saying nothing. Must not be much of a talker.
"What's so goddamn funny? If you're gonna kill me, do it fast, otherwise I might die of boredom before you get the chance."
"Don't tempt me, Wolf. I just might." said the redhead. That got Masamune's attention. Wolf was an old alias he'd used a long time ago. One nobody in the village really remembered unless they'd known him a long time, like Takayuki or Zeke. Was this someone who knew him? He looked at her more closely, but couldn't see much past the hood and facemask she wore. Masamune rose tentatively to his feet. Might as well die standing up.
"Easy, Masamune. We need him alive a little longer." berated Wes, never raising his voice.
"Yeah Kasumi, why you gotta be so mean all the time?" added Renga.
Kasumi.
Masamune.
Big sister had come calling at last. Things just got a shitload more dangerous.
Masamune strained himself not to try and kill her right then. In his condition, he couldn't take on all four of them, and it seemed he wasn't in any immediate danger (Physically, at least. Where Djinn was involved danger came in about twenty different flavors).
"You..." Masamune growled at his only remaining family. Kasumi had been instrumental in the attack that had overthrown and killed pretty much the entire Masamune clan, long ago. It was possible Syaoran was still a little upset about it.
Wes interrupted. "While I'm sure you'd love to rant about your family's demise and how can she live with herself and she's lucky you almost killed yourself or you'd kill her now," he said, summing up the gist of Masamune's train of thought, "I have a proposal to make, and I'd rather be on our way soon, without bloodshed if possible."
Syaoran bristled at the man's arrogance. How could he be so... so damn calm?! But he did his best to settle his anger down. As it was, the only thing keeping him alive was a cool head and a shut mouth. He took advantage of the relative calm to get a good look at his captors. Kasumi, he already knew from a visit she'd paid to Gaioh a couple years back, was redheaded, long haired, slight of build and as quick to anger as Syaoran himself. Hot tempers and hotter jutsu tended to run in the family. Or at least, they had.. Down, boy. Keep your cool and you might get out of this alive. he berated himself.
Wes, as it turned out, was built a lot like Syaoran, if Syaoran had had four arms and a long, reptilian tail. His hair looked short, and darkly colored, it was hard to tell by starlight but it looked black. He, and the rest of the group for that matter, wore a hooded robe, open at the front, grey tunic and pants in a similar style to Masamune's own, and (save for no-name) a facemask that covered most of what their hooded robes missed.
The third member of the group, the no-name standing at Syaoran's left, looked relatively normal, save for the fact that Masamune could barely make out a wispy stream of smoke continually rising out of the corner of his mouth, with no visible source. Maybe why he hadn't said much of anything thus far. He seemed too thin, and his robe hung on him like a tent.
Renga, on the other hand, might have been wearing a tent. He had easily as much body mass as the other three combined, and not an ounce of it looked like fat. He had arms bigger than most genin in the village. Masamune made a mental note not to ask him to armwrestle.
Syaoran turned back to face Wes (moving his neck still hurt, he must've wrenched it when he hit his head) and arched an eyebrow.
"Well? I'm waiting. Let's hear this 'proposal' of yours." Between the freak show and his sister, if Wes asked to marry him it might not have surprised him.
"It's simple. We need you to come with us" Wes said. "You have a debt to be paid, and we're to collect it. Djinn has sent us to inform you that your first task shall be to join us."
"Oh, the old 'join or die' routine, eh?" Masamune said, his sarcasm bringing no reaction out of Wes, who remained cool as a cucumber. It did, however, seem to piss Kasumi off to a great degree, so he kept it up.
"Regrettably, yes, if you do not come with us we shall be forced to kill you." Wes said matter-of-factly, which, for the way it was said, was a lot scarier than most such threats. Wes had no doubt that he could and would kill Syaoran, or at least he wasn't showing any.
"Regrettably," Masamune mocked, "Djinn promised I would get to choose which tasks I took and which I did not. You can't frighten or coerce me into signing on with your little traveling circus" he said, and he started to walk away.
He found out about a second later how wrong he was, when a pain in his chest brought him to his knees. It wasn't a physical pain, rather it felt as if someone was scraping a knife down his soul, which was somehow infinitely more painful than a physical blade. He couldn't cry out, he was too busy not being able to breathe.
I promised you would get to choose, but I never said I wouldn't use others to negotiate for me. And I never promised I wouldn't incapacitate you while four strangers killed you of their own free will. You ought to have been more cautious in the wording of your bargain, flameling. Djinn's words sounded in his head, for Syaoran alone to hear. It seemed it really was 'Join or Die', then. The pain eased up, leaving Masamune gasping for air as he lay on the ground.
"Al...right." he choked "I'll go... with you."
It took Syaoran several moments to get his wits about him, and when he rose to his feet and looked around, is capacity to withstand wierdness almost peaked out.
The rest were kneeling around him, which last time he checked, was not standard procedure for ninja-kidnapping bad guys. Weird though it was, he was pleased to see Kasumi was literally shivering with indignance.
"Master. What is your will?" Wes asked, very evil-henchman-like.
"Uh..." Masamune said.
He means you... Heirophant Djinn prompted
"Uh..." Masamune said.
