The Cave

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It was dark and cold. Yusuke was wet. He had cut his knee open on a stalagmite several yards back and just now he had bumped into a wall. Yusuke cussed and spent a few more minutes fondling in the dark trying to find his way. He was stumbling toward a lone source of light off in the distance. Three steps later, he fell and hit his head on the jagged stone ground. How had he ended up here?

It had started with Ishii. After the attack on Konoha Yusuke’s jounin sensei had been preoccupied running security checks and interrogating witnesses. She had, however, devoted her fleeting free moments to training both Yusuke and Hiryuu. The first round of the tournament had ended. They had both moved on. Despite what she said, Ishii wanted to see both of her students in the finals.

Based on that eventuality, however, Ishii had been forced to separate the two’s training sessions. Friendship aside, Yusuke and Hiryuu’s rivalry had been especially intense lately, and neither wanted the other seeing the skills they were learning should they ultimately have to turn those skills against each other. Ishii had been very understanding of that.

” What do you know of your father’s abilities? ”

Ishii had never mentioned Yusuke’s father before. To his knowledge, the two had never met. But after their training session had concluded, while Yusuke was picking up scattered kunai and shuriken, she had randomly brought it up. Yusuke didn’t know why.

” I, uh . . . ” Yusuke had paused while he tried to remember. The older he got, the more memories of his parents began to blur. Without the pictures he had, he probably would have forgotten their faces by now. ” I remember he was fast, and that he was strong. People have told me he had the strongest Sharingan the Uchiha clan had seen in generations. I know they used to call him the Hidden Leaf’s White Spectre, ”

Ishii had nodded. Then, her young features twisted into a devious smirk.

” I think maybe it’s time you got a better idea of why your father was such a terrifying shinobi. I want you to go here and speak to the creatures you find inside. They’re expecting you. Trust me. ”

Ishii had given him a map with a cliché’d X marked on it and that was that. She wouldn’t answer any more questions other than to make vague and cryptic allusions to Yusuke’s fathers’ prowess as a shinobi. It had infuriated Yusuke that, for all he cared about his dead father, he knew so very little about what had made him such a great ninja. He had come here hoping to find out.

Ishii’s map had led Yusuke to a cave, a massive rock formation in the side of a mountain hidden on all sides by trees. He had wandered inside and was still looking for whatever ‘creature’ Ishii had told him to find. His journey hadn’t been easy. Picking himself up off of the cave’s damp floor, Yusuke crawled forward a few more feet on all fours before he finally stood up and stumbled toward the light at the end of the cave. Then, without warning, the light went away.

” What the— ”

Yusuke froze when, within the dark, he made finally saw something: two ominous eyes staring back at him. Paralyzed with fear, the light at the end of the cave suddenly came back, and Yusuke found himself staring at a black bat. Hanging upside from the cave’s ceiling, the small dark creature had white eyes and large ears. Its wings were wrapped around its tiny body; Yusuke could see the Hidden Leaf’s symbol tattoo’d on the creature’s left wing.

” What do you seek? ”

The creature’s voice was deep and as dark as its hide. It reverberated throughout the cave; the cavern’s foundations shook, and Yusuke almost lost his footing. Even from several feet away, Yusuke felt the bat’s immense chakra emanating, smothering him within these claustrophobic confines. The creature’s spiritual pressure was enormous. Yusuke could barely stay upright beneath the weight of its awesome power. With a trembling lip, he found the nerve to speak.

” I seek . . . The means to fight injustice. To turn fear against those who prey upon the fearful, ”

The bat studied him carefully with its alabaster eyes. Opening its wings, it produced a small scroll. Falling to the ground, the scroll unfurled itself upon the cave's floor. Examining it, Yusuke’s eyes narrowed; the scroll had his father’s signature.

” Then sign the scroll with blood. Forsake all others, and our power will be yours whenever you need us, ”

The bat dropped from the ceiling and flew further back into the cave, disappearing into the shadows. Stepping forward, Yusuke bit his left thumb and scrawled his name in blood.