~Chapter Twenty~

The four Storm Shinobi stand in an underground cavern. Emiko and Daiki stand off to the side with shadows hiding their expressions. Ja'far stands in the center and a light sheen of sweat beads along his forehead as his nerves flare up. Nearly inaudible footsteps sound out as Winter walks in, her head held high.

She strides forward and stands in front of Ja'far, holding a book with her left hand. She reaches out her hand and he places his right hand, palm down, on the book. She states the pledge once more and Ja'far commits it to memory before repeating it.

"I, Ja'fari Fukkishimi, hereby pledge myself to the Lunar Society until the end of my days. I will use my eyes to see all that happens, my words to unravel my foes, my ears to hear every secret, my hands to destroy my enemies. I will do everything in my power to crush those that block my path. For me there is only the absolute mission, and I will forsake all ties that I must to complete our ultimate goal. I shall leave no trace behind, for I shall follow our mantra. I will leave nothing behind to show I was there.

For I am a warrior of the maelstroms, a guardian of the storms and no one can stop me now."

Silverlight forms underneath the bandages on Winter's left forearm, spiral down and across the book before creeping up onto Jafar's right forearm. His teeth grit against one another as a flash of white hot pain flares up as the society's emblem appears on his forearm. In sync the four open their mouths letting their motto tumble out of their mouths in perfect harmony. "No blood. No bone. No ash."

Winter tucks the book away and smiles with blood red lips at Ja'far. "Welcome to the club."

***

Papers were spread out along a long desk and Winter sits behind it, sorting through them with a critical eye. She set each paper in one of two piles, on significantly larger than the other. Names, dates and clans dominated all other thoughts as she searched through her archives with precision. She wasn't stupid, she had seen the way this world was turning and she wasn't about to return to the Leaf Village to tell Tsunade about her decision until she was certain the Storm Village could fend for itself.

And that included building a small army capable of going head to head with a Hidden Village.

War was inevitable and she didn't know if she was going to live through the entire thing, after all she knew that the next Great Shinobi War would start before she died. It was common sense, but unfortunately many choose to ignore that.

It was quiet in the office seeing how the other three were off scouring the corners of this world for people that had survived the massacre or had been out on missions while it happened. She knew some wouldn't accept their proposition and that was alright, all of the Lunar Society knew how to erase memories ensuring that if- more like when -the Storm Village had to get involved with war, that their entrance would be not only a surprise but an advantage to whoever they allied with.

She got up and cracked her neck, stretching as she relieved herself of the strenuous job. She glances at a paper taped onto the wall with three names one it, showing how many people each person had recruited. Emiko had already found ten, Ja'far six and Daiki... She sighed and rubbed her temples. Either he had gotten really good with words within the span of a day or he scared the shit out of the people he found.

Daiki had found thirty-one. Yep, definitely the scaring tatic.

The first arrival would be in two days giving her plenty of time to create a training regiment, figure out divisions and prepare herself for being in the spotlight. Sadly out of the four hundred papers she'd gone through none of the people where Ookami's. Sure she'd found a few descendents but they were more like her two times removed, eight cousin or some weird shit like that. Freeing her hair from the tight ponytail she had pulled it up into, she felt her hair cascade down her back to her mid thighs. She should probably cut it.

She walked out of the recently restored building in the center of the almost completely revised village and made her way to the edge. She walked out of the Storm Barrier and jogged into the surrounding woods.

She walked around for a few moments letting the fresh air wash over her like a wave of renewal. She let her body relax and allowed all the pent up emotions stored within in her flash across her face. Anger. Sadness. Guilt. Annoyance. Joy. The last one was the one emotion she tried to bury more than anything else. Fear. Shaking her head slightly she continued to walk, her shoulders curling forward.

She glanced around as she walked, sharp eyes searching for the right place. She walked up to a tree, pressing against a certain piece of bark that was patterned. If one listened closely enough they could hear small gears clicking into place and a small lock opening. The tree shuddered and part of the trunk vanished leaving behind a staircase made out of stone. She ventured downwards, musty air washing over her. Her nose wrinkled slightly at the strange smell and the tree shudders before moving back to normal shrouding her in darkness. Her lips pursed slightly and she continued on going down, the air chilling the farther she went.

It's like I'm descending to hell.

Her lips curl up into a smirk at the thought and she nearly tripped when she finally reached the bottom of the stair case. The air was stale and cool against her skin, her hand searching along the wall to flip the light switch

Artificial light floods the usual dark store room. all four walls made out of concrete. Floor to ceiling shelves are along three of the walls, all filled with various scrolls and books. A desk was pressed up against the fourth wall with diagrams and blueprints spread out haphazardly, There wasn't that much dust; the first time Winter had gone to the store room there happened to be around three inches of dust, and the heavy air was being replaced by crisper air.

Slim fingers scarred by many fights trail over the spines of the books, flip through scrolls and carefully move blueprints.

First she placed the training regiments in one pile, then the weapons designs into another, jutsus made up the third pile and armor the fourth. The fifth pile was designated to anything out of the ordinary but would be important. Anything not sorted into these piles was put back where she found it.

It was a task that wasn't very taxing but very time consuming, which wasn't exactly the best thing. For there was one more thing she need to work one; something that some might call ridiculous and others might think is critical. But it didn't matter what others thought of her at the moment, she was going to do through with her plan no matter how impossible, how cold, how likely it was going to fail. First things first though...

She stretched up and felt along the top of the shelf furthest from her at the very top, finding the thin sliver book she was searching for.

If she was going to lead an army... she might as well look the part. 

She closed her eye briefly, smirking softly at her thought. But as quickly as her eye shut it snapped open, her mouth dropping open as shock coursed through her. Anger quickly followed as memories flowed through her from the seal that she'd place in the Leaf Village a long time ago was broken. Images of broken buildings, people screaming and chaos following imprinted themselves into her brain.

Her lips peeled back into a snarl and her sharp teeth were bared a pure rage consumed her, fire burning through her veins. The single word that she uttered held nothing but pure malevolence, her voice dropping an octave as her hands curled into tight fists. Every muscle of hers tensed up as if preparing for flight and a low growl soon followed after the word dropped from her mouth.

"Akatsuki!"

The look Winter gets on her face when she realizes what's happening to the Leaf Village to the side/up top.

Ahh! I'm so sorry that I haven't updated in a while! Life got in the way; meaning school, and on Thursday when I was going to upload this chapter my bro got in a car accident (he's okay except for the fact that his neck muscles are tightened up because of whiplash) and everything was really hectic!

But I am happy to announce that I only have one more week of school before I get two full weeks off! Yay for winter break. 

I am now going to be keeping with an updating schedule I've made and for Guardian of the Storm that means I will be updating twice every week (at a minimum) 

QotC: 

1. What do you think is going on at the Leaf Village right now? 

2. And what do you want to be in life? I want to either be an author or an animator/graphic designer.