The Black Plague [Private]

t was roughly 11 p.m. on a moonless night in Sunagakure tonight. The day walkers would have retreated to their homes and the nocturnal trudgers would egress from their homes to traverse the cooled atmosphere that was the product of the lack of sunlight. While stars hung in the sky they didn't offer any actual light to one's surroundings. Only these lanterns that hung every seven meters or so on the side of the three meter wide road provided lighting for those that dared to walk atop the grains of dulled out colorless sound at this hour and the hours to come. Why were things so treacherous at night one could ask? Well like any place the crime rates took a rather notable leap at night, such things were inevitable. Steps to try to contain the increase in crime could surely help, but it would never extinguish the flame. Crime was the reason Sachio was out and about at this hour. Along with a collection of nine other Sunagakure Ninja making ten in total, Sachio was assigned the task of acting like a police force. Methods of enforcement were different from shinobi to shinobi, some preferred arrest, some like Sachio preferred just pummeling the offenders until they had but a bit of life left in them. Sometimes he would go overboard on unintentionally however and a soul or two, or four would lose their lives. No matter, they were criminals after all, better than letting them go through a justice system and give them another chance right?

Volumes of his Iron Sand and Powder spread around him as he had a group of three in his sights, he sat on a rooftop int he poorly lit area. He hadn't even a faint glow on him from the Will-O-Wisp that hung on the road sides. The roof was triangular in shape, consisted of stone rectangular shingles, at its peak was seven meters high, and it stretched out to be one of the borders of the street he was on. Roughly thirty meters long that made it. In front of him on the other side of the road, were three suspicious looking persons who were just loitering at this moment. Hidden from sight, Sachio silently observed the three to see if anything incriminating would happen. As opposed to him, they were well lit by a lantern's flickering flame, so he could surveil them just fine. In due time a man from a home on the suspect's side of the road would open his door and peek out his home. He was about seven meters away from them in Sachio's right hand side. His head and those of the three in question shifted over to put the man in their view. A few confident looking head nods and sneers and the group began to make their way over to this home. The resident of the house, had seen them and instantly snatched his door shut, the sound of the door locking followed right after. Apparently they weren't welcome, but would make their entrance into the man's home anyways. This apparent as they began to fiddle with the lock with what was presumably a pick.

That's all Sachio needed to mark them for death and so his Iron Powder alone moved in. The black cloud was a plague or unseen disease as it would float over to infest the three bodies with its influence or rather the influence of its wielder. Hindering the respiratory system, the plague would strangle each of the criminals, before other volumes moved to clump their bodies together in one ebon mass. Sachio would be sitting in the darkness still, just watching what went on down below as if he was just an onlooker and not a factor in the scheme of what was unfolding. Wrapped tight in the single cocoon, the three bodies would began to slowly feel the pressure increase from the simply immobilizing start, to a crushing strength. The grip on their neck had been released once the cocoon was formed, as Sachio wanted to hear their cries for mercy or better yet cries and pleas for an end. It wasn't anything out of the norm for fits of screaming and blood curdling yelling to be heard on the nights Sachio was part of the crime force, he enjoyed it. Even more than the yelling, what he enjoyed as he slowly clenched his fist tighter and tighter, was the feeling when the victims bone's gave way. It was like stepping on a roach and feeling the exoskeleton finally give up on protecting the putrid insect and allow it to be squeezed to an unrecognizable swab of mush. The same would happen here and the moment those poor little bones did let up, their death would be instantaneous. The Iron Powder was so compact at this point that it cradled the blood that would have seeped out of their blood and soaked it up not letting a single blood wriggle through and drip in the sand.

Not until the bind was release at least, then a mess of the ruby fluid that hadn't drenched and stained Sachio's Iron Powder would splash out on the cool sand with the mangled corpses. "That was fun while it lasted." The mummy of a man with his large scroll on his back would call his Iron Powder back to him at this point. Leaving the corpses right there in their own mess, Sachio would mold the Iron Powder into a three dimensional platform. It was roughly semi circle in shape, flat top, but the bottom was a bit lumpy and organic looking, not thoroughly refined. This platform was directly in front of Sachio and nonchalantly he'd step on it ever stable with his balance. Having more than enough room, three meters of space, Sachio crouched down for better balance as this platformed whisked him throughout Sunagakure above and passed the buildings careful not to hit any. He was totally hidden from sight, as no moon or light for that matter, was in the sky to give contrast to his flying frame. All the volumes of his Jiton medium with him, the black mass would move him over the village at an urgent pace in search for more victims. Sachio enjoyed the crime stopping task as he always had free reign to relinquish his violent tendencies justly on people. He meditated on the reasoning for such a task force and figured Sunagakure had it created just for crazies like himself. It was a way for them to tighten their screws and keep their lids on throughout the day period, for they always knew when night came they'd be able to take off the facade of a normal shinobi and indulge fully in acts of legalized murder for their village.

Not necessarily the mass murdering type however, Sachio was one who just liked to test his capabilities and better himself. He always lived by the words that "Man whets man." meaning man sharpens man, so fighting is something he lived for. Nothing got his blood rushing like a good death match and though he denies getting pleasure from killing, deep down he knows he does. He just doesn't like coming to terms with a trait he associates with animalistic or primal behavior. Today he'd let go however. Where he was headed was the miniature desert that served as a training ground inside of Sunagakure. Little did he know he'd be revisiting it at a later time for the Kazekage Tournament. What he was here for tonight wasn't in search of criminals, but rather a fellow Sunagakure Shinobi. The Mummy has studied his route for a while now and when he was first taken on the task force,t he first couple of times he was under this man's wing to learn how things worked. It was always around this time that he was in the make-shift desert looking for those who found refuge in its vastness and lack of light to go about their business. Tonight, Sachio would adopt that role and become one who acted in the darkness to go about his business. Such business involved battle with this Jounin, Marui Irukanji. Along with being a great swordsman, he was also well versed in ninjutsu and Fuinjutsu as well, so Sachio expected him to put up a good fight and while normally Sachio figured he'd lose, he knew Marui always had the habit of pushing himself during these sessions. That meant his chakra pool would already be diminished a bit, presumably down to Sachio's level. Also to even the field a bit, Sachio had the element of surprise on his side. Like a hell spawn from the Devil, the Chunin would sail through the black night sky on his black steed to the area he knew Marui would be at, but he'd hang overhead silently rather than approach him head on when he noted his presence.

The journey took about fifteen minutes, but Sachio's reward was the Jounin he had targeted thirty meters away in his sights. It seemed the desert arena was being worked on and it was lightly illuminated by small orbs of light every twenty meters of so. The illumination didn't reach to the next orb and left about five meters of space in between each orb still cloaked in complete darkness. This meant seven and a half meters of light were supplied in each direction from the orbs, so eight meters up, Sachio would bring his steed to a silent halt and observe his prey. For about three minutes Sachio stalked silently from atop his suspended Iron Powder as Marui trudged the desert arena looking for criminals. "You've been tailing me for at least five minutes, I'm guessing you're finally ready to try to kill me?" His back was still turned to Sachio, but the Chunin wasn't surprised he was detected or already figured out. He too had to kill one of his own allies during one of these session when they came for him having though he'd make for a fun kill and now he was doing the same. It was like an infectious disease. "If I die trying, just make sure you go for that bastard Toshie next." Normally even hypotheticals about his possible death were even uttered out his mouth, but Sachio knew Marui would perhaps be the strongest he's fought thus far.

Still while Marui's back was turned, Sachio would commence his assault. First the sand around his target's feet would begin to quickly churn in a five meter diameter. In but a second, he'd be sucked underneath to die from being crushed front eh Iron Powder that lurked underneath he surface. This Iron Powder is what was causing the sand to actually churn. Just as quickly as the jutsu would have ended his life, Marui haas reacted however. With the sand giving away int eh lightest bit, the Jounin had sprang into action jumping at Sachio while turning to face him. He had two katanas on his back and one of his hands was reaching to grip one while the other was moving through hand seals. He's full of surprises shit. With the thrust of a hand, from his mound of Iron Powder he was crouched upon,a myriad of bullets were fired out towards the incoming shinobi as his mouth swelled up and his lips puckered. When the tennis ball sized bullets came within his vicinity, he was swift to draw his blade and swat them down, until he released a geyser of flames from his flame in a thick condensed stream headed towards Sachio solely. The Chunin's eyes widened and the ball's of his eyes reflected the hungry orange-red flames, at the same time this involuntary reaction happened a more progressive and defensive one that really mattered would as well. Deftly titling his levitating Iron Powder platform, he simultaneously applied chakra to the soles of his feet to allow him to stick to the titled platform. The platform's shape would immediately morph into that of a wall, but there was more behind it than that. A small area an extra inch bigger than all Sachio would touching on the Iron Powder mound would remain unmoved with this jutsu to ensure his balance was maintained. Secondly, the angling of the wall when the mound was titled would allow for the fire jutsu to be blocked in the most optimal way as possible.

When the flames hit the wall, it was pushed slightly in the direction eh fire was going and the flames would spread out and go beyond the permitter of the wall, but with its large dimensions of ten meters by five meters, Sachio would be unharmed. Also notably three meters thick and nice and compact, Sachio knew Marui wouldn't be able to pierce through with his blade if it remained unaugmented due to its length not surpassing that of the walls girth. Still however, with the stream of flames dying down, the impact of what was presumably the Jounin's body was felt hitting the levitating wall of Iron Powder. "Two steps ahead isn't enough for a shinobi of my caliber!" Accompanying his words came a sensation of vibrations in the wall. This sensation lasted for but a fraction of a second before a light blue aura that was Marui's chakra was extended through the wall in his blade's shape. It dug into Sachio's hand about three inches before the Chunin removed his hand to avoid further impalement from the still extending blade. These vibrations came front eh Iron Powder being cut through and actual grinder up from being so compact as the chakra blade forced itself through the wall. Sachio would imitated such a tactic however. Clenching his injured hand as a way to try to suppress the pain, this also signaled the beginning of a new technique Sachio had been practicing. With the Iron Powder wall obviously having proportions bigger than that of Marui or Sachio, the wall's size would be used to Sachio's advantage. Quickly the flat sides of the wall would become like fangs or at least triangular in shape, not necessarily sharp. They'd stretch outwards and bend inwards at the same time to try to create a sphere with Marui being the contents. The walls face that Marui was closest two would retain its integrity and shape, ultimately staying how it was, just the outside of the wall would move to subdue the Jounin making an odd blunt face circle in the end. While this went on, Sachio had pushed off the surface of the aerial Iron Powder wall to land safely int eh desert sand below. What he had now was a floating sphere with a Jounin inside as a surprise. "Just like a piñata, but instead of beating to death, I'll just 'crush' you." With the word crush, came the inevitable implosion of the Iron Powder to compress its contents ultimately into a ball of bloody mess like done to the criminals earlier tonight. His other hand this time tightened into a fist to create the crushing force for the sphere, Sachio opened both hands to see the black powder pour out in range of a small orb of a lightbulb below. All was great save for the lack of blood and a body. Sachio was in disbelief, but then a cold sweat ran over his body rendering him almost frozen. Swiftly he tried to call his Iron Powder back to him as an emergency defense to try to defend himself against the limitless amount of possibilities that could happen. Time never seemed to move slower for him as he tried, but alas his movements were for nothing, luckily for him.

About fifteen meters up ahead the sand began to ruffle and out of it came a calm Marui. "Almost had me, but you lost sight of me when I used the fire jutsu, so I swapped with a clone." He shocked sand out his hair and sheathed his katana back in the holster. "We'll call this round one and a draw. When we have crime duty again meet me here, same time, and same idea. It's almost time to report in, so we should get a move on." Sachio was not only disappointed, but also oddly satisfied the bout was over. He knew and Marui more than likely knew as well, that Sachio would have lost that fight and died, but Marui had called it off. It was almost time to report in, sure, but it wouldn't have even taken the Jounin a second to sneak in the Chunin's area while underground and stab him while he was crouching the clone.

Tempted to ask why he was spared, he figured he'd act as if the whole thing never happened, but he'd surely meet Marui here again for the next round and that time he wouldn't be spared.

Word Count: 2,883

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