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Kazangakure. The village which was now a desolate ruin; a village that excelled in the past and was considered one of the most powerful military might in history thus far. Aside from their sheer strength and tenacity, the village also possessed a nearly indomitable willpower almost as strong as their volcanic fortress that deterred all but the most persistent of would-be enemies. Few invaders who saw within their village, escaped to tell the tale. One could speculate that these such invaders were either held prisoners inside the fabled Obsidian Cave, or had been thrown into the lava for their crimes. How I would have wished to witness this village in its glory... Sheffield thought to herself as she inspected the empty village from a safe distance; she could just imagine all of the unique and useful shinobi within its walls.

Untold secrets and artifacts that would assuredly be useful to such a vagabond such as herself. An outcast of Tsukigakure, a wanderer and wanted criminal, an infamous singer- the enchantress of requiems. Sheffield had been betrayed by her very clan and forced to escape with her life from the village she had sworn to protect. Even still, though she hated her clan and wanted nothing more than to wipe them out; she still very much cared for the village of Tsukigakure itself and the Oujoukage with which she was friends. She couldn't communicate with Eden though, labeled as a criminal wanted by Tsukigakure; the great Eden would at the very least try to convince her to return as a protected prisoner until the issue was resolved.

Sheffield was not an idealist though, she knew how things would turn out. She would deny her friend and he would end up forcing her to return through force; even within his custody, her clan would find a way to kill her. The Onmyoton, the cursed clan shrouded in darkness- the clan that raised their children to become cold-hearted murderers and machines of profit and war. With so many years to perfect their skill at killing, and especially within the village they are most familiar and most influentially powerful- Sheffield knew that she would still die even if her friend Eden, the Oujoukage stood by her side the whole time.

It was a terrible waste of a clan; the shinobi with such a rare and special gift; closest to the Sage of the six paths. Surely the Sage would be ashamed to know that his closest kin were nothing more than mindless puppets who moved about in the shadows at a handful of corrupted and selfish men's commands. They could be so much more. Instead of killing, they could be used to create buildings, crops and countless other useful objects with their reality-based genjutsu. It was Sheffield's desire to free the Onmyoton of their darkness, and Tsukigakure freed from the corrupted grip of the clan itself.

The greatest sadness was the truth that Sheffield had come to realize; the only way to free her clan from darkness, was to take it down to its pure, unadulterated form. In simplest terms, this meant a genocide. While unfortunate and undesirable; the current generations were too corrupt and gripped with darkness to be saved. She would have to kill them and take the innocent children and rebuild the clan from the base upward. Sheffield was a shrewd woman though, while outwardly friendly; inside she wouldn't hesitate to kill her own parents, let alone any other stranger who stood in her way. As a woman of solitude and very little trust, she worked alone most of the time and never asked for help- except from one or two individuals with a disposition that she could understand and know well enough to not be caught off guard.

One such shinobi, was Andeddo. An S Ranked shinobi of Kusamuragakure who she knew fairly well; often the two exchanged favors when they were in need of something. Most recently was training Sheffield's signature jutsu; a truly terrifying and equally difficult jutsu. Had Andeddo been any other shinobi, he would have attempted to slay her then and there instead of letting her leave unscathed. He possessed a unique spirit though, somewhat understanding the darkness in her heart and knew she meant no ill will against his village. She was a wanted criminal of Tsukigakure, not Kusamuragakure after all. Andeddo was not the hunter type and wished not for more responsibility than he had been given due to his skill and experience.

Because of those such things, Sheffield trusted the man to a moderate degree... but the human nature was a fickle thing, so Sheffield never trusted fully. Once, she had taken the guise of an Onmyoton woman within Tsukigakure and taken on a young Onmyoton apprentice named Yuri Onmyoton. Sheffield had toyed with the young woman's emotions and used her Genjutsu skills to subtly influence the young assassin, hoping to free of her of her darkness. Having such a young and talented clan member as her tool within the village would have been an invaluable tool. Things had gotten complicated though and now Sheffield was back on the road, looking for a new way to free her clan of their darkness.

Now she possessed such an ability. A very pricy ability and one that could not be used often or else she could die. For now, she was biding her time, waiting for the opportune moment to strike for assured victory. That time was not upon her yet and so, she did what she had to survive. As an outcast and wanted criminal, her presence had drawn the attention of a certain criminal organization. This organization offered her a second chance, assisted her in surviving and escaping Tsukigakure when she had been ordered to be assassinated, and now the organization gave her the means to survive in such a wild and dangerous lawless land.

This organization was Ourboros. Ouroboros had their own goals that Sheffield wasn't too interested in, she simply used them for what they could give her. If the time came and their plan became clear enough, she would destroy Ouroboros to protect Tsukigakure: any other village was fair game. For now, she was playing along and doing as was ordered for the "greater good" of the organization. Currently, that "greater good" was to assassinate a specific ex-member of Ouroboros, someone who possessed invaluable information on their plan as well as their identities. Being a master of assassinations, the group had given Sheffield the task of assassinating the targt; Kallen Senju.

The target had suddenly become unresponsive during a mission and had been presumed killed in action. Each individual Ouroboros member had special ways of disposing their own body after death to prevent anyone from taking their secrets. So initially when she was presumed dead, Ourobors had simply found Sheffield for her replacement. The problem was, signs of her existence could still be seen. Sharp eyes and keen ears alerted the organization that the target was still very much alive and now rogue. This posed a very big problem for the organization; instead of wondering why Kallen had suddenly disappeared and no longer communed with them, they had ordered her disposed of. A fitting action that her own clan would have done.

Sheffield couldn't help but smirk at the irony of who she was and what she was doing. She had fought so hard to break away from the darkness instilled into her heart from her clan, but now she was using that very skill to do an act that would be approved of by her despicable clan. She despised herself, but had to admit that the skills were too important and valuable in this world to be without. At least these ways of assassination can be used to atone for the darkness it created. It was very poetic, but Sheffield only half-believed herself. She was unsure if disposing of the hierarchy in her clan and re-establishing a more positive structure would be best. What if she did succeed? What if her clan was manipulated by far greater powers and used for their purposes once they were brought to the light, instead of being hidden away in darkness. All she could do was hope that she would be around long enough to solidify a powerful grasp within Tsukigakure to prevent them from being used in such a way.

Sheffield slowly descended a nearby ridge as she closed the short distance to the desolate village. The last spotting of her target had been in this general direction, chances were that Kallen was using Kazangakure as a hideout, to hide from both the popular villages as well as Ouroboros. Truth be told, Ouroboros themselves used Kazangaure as the base of their operations; using the burning destruction to cloak their presence. It made sense for someone as smart and deadly as Kallen to be hiding so close that she wouldn't be expected. That posed important questions in Sheffield's mind in itself; what was Kallen planning to do if she was so close? Possibly monitoring the organization's movements and betraying them to some village.

Regardless of her inkling, she was a threat to Ouroboros and indirectly a threat to Sheffield. Sheffield could not and would not take a chance with this one. She entered the ruins by using Ouroboros' secret entrance so she would remain unseen and undetected: getting the drop on her target was the most vital aspect of assassination. If that failed, Sheffield was sufficiently skilled in open combat to kill her target in a long drawn-out battle. If I were a scurrying rat who betrayed everything and everyone they've known... where would I hide?.. Sheffield thought to herself as she stood between several cave paths that lead to different parts of the abandoned village. An idea popped into Sheffield's head and she smiled to herself underneath a dark brown cloak that covered her from head-to-toe.

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Word count- 1,655

Kallen's cheerful expression had been replaced with that of a somber face as of late. A dull ache had shown in her eyes for some time now; she appreciated and enjoyed beautiful things... yet lately, all she had seen were the ugly walls of the forsaken village of Kazangakure. Despite being in the ruins of the once mighty volcanic village, she was underground in a cold part of the destroyed village. In most areas, the temperature was mildly warm and dry; the reason for this was because of the volcano around the village's structure. The magna heated the ground and dried to air of unnecessary moisture, this prevented most build-ups of cold dark and wet places: yet somehow, the troubled woman had found herself camped in one such rare place in the abandoned village.

One would think, that being the ghost town that it was, Kallen could hide wherever she wanted... or not hide at all for that matter. This was not so however, Kallen had to be even more careful here and sublimate her feelings of disgust and resentment for hiding in such a dark and dank environment. She love beautiful things and longed to find a better hiding place where she could grow a garden; she loved gardening, it was one of her favorite past times. She felt at "one" with nature when tending to the little plants that her own clan seemed to share a somewhat distance relationship. Unlike plants though, she was Senju and could create wood and vines wherever she wished for her own advantage or enjoyment. Not here though, she couldn't risk leaving signs of her presence in Kazangakure.

The hideout she was in, the Obsidian caves was a perfect hideout except for the fact that it was the most undesirable place within the ruins of Kazangakure. Prison cells dotted the cave at the bottom level of the village's ruins, these prison cells consisted of obsidian shard that made it impossible for the prisoners to escape without first tearing their skin from their flesh. Long since had these prisoners been alive, all that was left were the forgotten corpses of forsaken criminals that had once worked the mines for the village's profit by selling Obsidian on their market. They used Obsidian and granite to pave the roads to and from Kazangakure, giving the village a once beautiful appearance when it was constantly managed by the villager's before their demise.

Kallen had taken up the Guard room as her residence, not only did it have a solid door with a bolt and lock, but it was also the most warm and dry part of the caved mines. She had constructed a comfortable bed in this room with her Mokuton element, probably one of the very few "proofs" of her existence. Wood was a fickle thing though, only an experienced shinobi could tell the difference between carved and crafted wood rather than flowing chakra-based wood. A few living essentials didn't seem at all a problem to the positive-spirited girl; if she was going to live in this dangerous and dank place, she wanted to at least be able to enjoy a few of the simple pleasures of living comfortably.

She had a fire lit in the guard room inside the stove, a chimney ventilated the smoke outside the room and into the lava pools on another layer; she could be fairly careless with a built fire because the smoke that the lava pools gave off wouldn't give away her position. She sat on her bed, just wearing a simple white button-up shirt and white panties as she leaned forward with her hands reaching towards the fire. It was somewhat comfortable in the room now, the fire she had built was blazing with warmth and light, both of which didn't escape the guard room too well, due to the fact that all the walls were made of solid stone. The only exception to this was the door to the room... and it was a three inch thick door made of steel and obsidian.

Her eyes sparkled as she stared at the fight with a dull expression and her lips lightly parted as she thought about how disgusting it was to be hiding in here. That thought crossed her mind often, mostly because if the cold that she was accustomed to waking up to: she never ran out of wood for her fire, seeing as she possessed the Mokuton element and could create wooden logs out of her own chakra when she needed to replenish her wood stock. Yet even though she had a limitless supply of wood for her fire, she couldn't add wood while she was asleep- so she always woke up to the fire low and the coldness of the stones creeping in.

She hated the cold, it reminded her of unpleasant memories from her cold village she was originally from. She was homesick every morning she woke up to the cold that she feared so much; the coldness reminded her of the circumstances why she had left and why she would never be welcome in the frozen village. She had no reason to go there, even though she had a great desire to return as a free woman. In the past, she might have been ordered to go there for various missions by the leader of Ouroboros, or possibly accompanying one of the other Ouroboros members... but she was no longer part of that. She no longer wished to be associated with that organization; she had abandoned the organization and was now surely a wanted criminal from both the known villages, as well as the crime syndicate Ouroboros.

With nowhere else to turn or to call home, she had done what she knew best. That was how to survive. She was a smart shinobi, knowing that both the village's and the organization Ouroboros would search far and wide for her, but neither would suspect she would be so close to the Ouroboros hideout. Considering only the members themselves knew of the hideout, that meant she was safe from the villages and their hunters; she still had to worry about Ouroboros. That group was more persistent than the known villages, Kallen possessed valuable and critical information that Ouroboros would not allow her to keep for herself, for fear of exposing them.

Hiding right under their noses was the best option for now, at least until their vigilance slackened and she could move about a bit more freely to seek a proper hiding place where she could relax and enjoy nature's simple beauty. It had been over a year now since she had began to hide even from Ouroboros, and she was doing quite well- she had rationed her food and scavenged from nearby villages when was necessary. She believed in staying fit and keeping her skilled up- so she trained when time permitted and she had very little fear of getting caught. If she ever used her Mokuton element in exercised combat, she would chop it up for firewood for her fire, or simply toss it into the lava to be rid of my sign of her presence.

She bit her lip, realizing that she had been lost in thought about her home village and her past- being lost in thought, she hadn't realized she had kept her hands up too close to the fire and now they stung softly from the over-exposure to the heat. She leaned back and brought her cold toes up near the flames to warm them as she covered her fingers in the cold sheets to dull the small ache that emanated from her fingertips. The last thing I need is to end up burning myself... she teased herself lightly, making a little joke at her own expense.

It was late in the evening and she had already finished practice for the day; her body was clean because there was a pool not too far away from the guard room that stayed heated all the time and was clean from slow draining. It made perfect temperature for a bath and was warm enough to ward off any illnesses or contamination. She twirled her hair, a bit longer than she liked; so caught up in daily life of trying to survive in the unhospitable ruins of the volcanic village, she hadn't realized how long her hair was. She produced a kunai from her small ninja bag and grabbed her hair, she measured the length by two even handfuls and then cut off the excess with the sharp edge of the blade. She did this all around her hair, cutting it evenly; she had done this before and was quite skilled at it by now.

She tossed the loose hair into the fire and watched it set ablaze and quickly burn out; she couldn't help but notice how delicate her position was now. She was forsaken with no one to trust, she had betrayed even the outcasts who had taken her in, she belonged nowhere. Only the fire welcomed her and was her constant companion- yet the fire was a hungry thing, always devouring her mokuton logs and always eager to burn anything she allowed it. She sighed lightly and laid back on the bed, staring up at the rock ceiling which hung low over the bed: she wasn't sure how much longer she could take this small cold place. She closed her eyes and drifted off into an uneasy sleep. Little did she know, this would be her last peaceful sleep. Her next sleep, would be from the embrace of the ultimate cold- the kind of cold she feared the most. The coldness of death.

The shadows around the guard room seemed to dance about in the darkness; an unnatural darkness lurked about, seeking what light it could find and snuff it out permanently to ensure the secrets of darkness remained hidden. This darkness was Sheffield, close on the trail of the rat she had cornered- the darkness clawed at the door to the guard room where Kallen slept in unease. The light from her fire pushed away the darkness unknown behind the thick door; yet something felt off to the Senu girl, her fitful sleep ended and her eyes darted open, sure that something was amiss. She sat up and quickly pulled on her clothing; her sixth sense telling her danger was near. She snuffed out her fire and let her eyes become accustomed to the darkness as she listened for footsteps or movement in the shadows.

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Word count- 1,757

This is a WIP post for Sheffield