Hello Again, Yen (P, NK)

There was nothing more to do at this point other than wait and that's what got on his nerves. Wait for what, one might ask? The exams? To go home? Who knew? All the lycan knew was that there was nothing more he could do but wait, the worst activity in the world. Missions were slow, everyone was occupied with their own activities, training had most certainly lost its allure thanks to limited progress and so Salzem spent most of his time just sleeping. Easiest way to escape the world. The mind-numbing effects of an adrenaline rush had recently lost it's effectiveness for him, growing quite bored of the sensations it brought. He'd grown tired of imprinting his fist into various hardened surfaces because the repetitiveness was getting on his nerves. The world had once again come to a grinding halt as it always seemed to here in Sunagakure. Reminded him of that time he was waiting for that letter to finally reach Kurisu...

Sleep, unfortunately, was Salzem's last remaining outlet of escape from this stupid existence and he was starting to memorize the sensations of that loss of consciousness... This was not good because familiarity bred contempt and soon, when Salzem really would need sleep, he'd start neglecting it because he'd HATE the slow wind-down of his body as the paralyzing chemicals rushed through his veins. One day, he'd awaken to find his entire body was chained down from the inside, his nerves innert, his body slower and heavier than stone with his mind fully awake. He'd be a prisoner of his own insomnia to the point where both his mind and body conflicted on the concept of rest.

Despite that risk being there, Salzem spent most of his time now in his hotel room just sleeping, hands folded behind his head. He hardly bothered to change his clothes out day to day but luckily, it was one of those infrequent days. One could say the lycan was now "addicted" to escapes. He needed them, something to keep his mind off of the damned waiting, the forsaken slow passage of time, something that would keep him from being aware of every passing moment... And, unlike drugs (which he had yet to try), his addiction to sleep was starting to wear off.

Salzem wore today a black t-shirt, grey shorts and typical black sandals, his head-band tied neatly around his neck as usual. To the clock in his head practically screaming at him, Salzem opened his sanguine eyes, glancing over at the time-keeping device that rested table beside his bed. Early afternoon. Despite his mental inhabitions, Salzem forced himself from his covers, throwing his legs over his bed before standing, a bit wobbly at first then making his uneasy trek to the bathroom.

He splashed some cold water on his face before looking in the mirror, smirking at what he saw. Say what you will about his sleeping habits, but it was doing wonder for the little complexion he had. Salzem grabbed a cup from the kitchen and got himself some water from that sink, digging around in one of the cupboards for a snack. Grabbing a box of crackers, the lycan sat himself down at the table in the center of the hotel room and began snacking. If only he could see himself right now, REALLY see himself, he might be ashamed.... Too bad he was devoting all his energy into ignoring time.

yen stared off into space. ashie, his family, his friends, all flashing though his mind. in truth yen missed them all. As it seemed the exams were done, but yen couldn't shake the feeling his duties were not done. too many inconsistencies with the exams and them the feeling of the calamity. his mind wandered back to the dreaded name "youka". it was as if ever since that moment yen began to ferociously seek a way to return to his roots. the warrior that was still beating in his heart. 

His father may have died along side his mother and yen may have grown alone but, his resolve sang a strong enough song that at least he would put everything aside to grant his village peace.

timeless entity. where art thou blessing on me and my land. bring me back to my roots. the man, the warrior before myself before i became the healer. My bones  may creak and my soul may weep, but i must fight back against the shadows. Even if oblivion was to claim my soul. 


yen thought as he stared into the dark room. Ashie vanished before him. made him wonder about home. his home in the leaves. the desert beauty had its sights, but a father has to also look back at his children despite beauty of the world. yen shook his head as he took away the feeling of despair away, and instead decided to go for some fresh air.  The cool night air as yen passed by salzems door he sensed the lyncan was not as restful as he was. chakra sensory was quiet something. 

yen rapped three times on the door and kept walking, he would know where to find the aburame amid his thoughts. Any prson called by yen would find that it would have some signifigance of importance to his thoughts and concerns. 

get out here sal.


yen would think to himself as he headed out of the hotel and sat on a bench. blue cloak hiding his jouninn vest and his eyepatch on, However, he did not have his straw hat on at this time. no he used his natural relaxed look lined with stress and concern. his mind always thinking the next two to three steps in front of him.

Salzem was about half way through his first cracker, nibbling on it gingerly before he heard a quick series of rapps on his door. His eyebrows scrunched in confusion, the lycan let out a sigh of annoyance before getting up from the table and taking his cracker with him. He wasn't expecting company at all to say the least and right now, he didn't want any either. Perhaps if he was a bit inhospitable, they won't come back, whoever they were... Salzem opened the door a crack, already mentally preparing to shove these people on their merry way only to find nothing... The first thought that came to mind was that he was dinged-donged-ditched or something along those lines but as he opened the door wider and looked out into the hall, he caught the tail end of a familiar blue cloak, one that belonged to Yen Aburame. Salzem wondered what was going through his head that he needed to talk in this manner, just knocking and running, but whatever the reason, Salzem SUPPOSED it was worth leaving his room today. Slipping on some longer black pants, Salzem grabbed one sword from his three, the katana, strapping it over his chest before heading out, letting out a huge yawn as he made his way out of the hotel.

The first thing that shocked him was that it was actually night outside, not afternoon as his clock had stated. Feh... he'd have to get the receptionist to send someone up there to adjust it... Further frustrating the lycan, Yen was nowhere to be found immediately outside the hotel either, forcing him to look for him in some kind of ninja-hide-and-seek Salzem REALLY didn't want to participate in right now... He let out a sigh, silently coming to the conclusion that if he didn't find Yen in 5 minutes, he was going back to bed.

It didn't even take him 2 to discover that the blue-cloaked straw-hatted one-eyed aburame was sitting on Salzem's bench, the one that sat before Sunagakure's gates. Yen looked composed, but strain and stress was obvious on his face from what little Salzem could see through the darkness. Sitting himself down besides the older ninja, Salzem tossed the remains of his cracker into his mouth, finishing it off before speaking.

"Hey." He said rather flatly, the exhaustion in his voice not really contributing to the obvious abundance of emotion.

sal arrived and yen nodded quietly in response. he was silent for a second or two before speaking. 

"the exams. heard you had a crazy first fight sal. kyson is quiet the individual. i encountered him once before. he definaly gave me a run for my money. I just needed someone to talk to. close and i can trust fully without restraint." 

yen spoke in a soft tone and glanced at the lyncan quietly. he seemed at home here for one that was away from the village in the leaves.  yen slightly smiled as he gave sal a knowing look.

"so it was here that you were when you left sal. you fare much better than myself out here in the world. we train endlessly and improve time and time again, but the world is much greater than us. for im only a small aburame in the thickets of the world, but understand that no matter what happens i am counting on you to take over for me... i can feel it. my friend vanished and i cannot find her, now i feel more lonely than before. I also feel dread. i do not want to see our village harmed nor here  harmed. but kumogure i keep thinking back to the boy who told us a demon lives there. kasai spoke of the horrors of youka, but i feel bare looking at the sand. because we cannot loose anymore of our allies. sure our roots in the trees stand, but we are made of different seeds. but our purposes remain the same. the road will get rockier from here on out."

yen spoke quickly yet calmly as he spilled out his thoughts. 

"my body is well, different i tampered with a force  that perhaps should have never been tampered with. still i walk this path alone with no way to go one side or another. but i will request. i need your help sal."

Salzem didn't really say anything as Yen commented how his first fight was "crazy" or so he was told having heard the same thing from just about anyone who'd seen the thing. Hearing this kind of praise over and over made the lycan wish he'd never gotten as close as he did to winning. He probably should have just thrown himself into one of Kyson's attacks or something just to avoid hearing this again... Salzem let out a frustrated sigh as if to emphasize this feeling before Yen said something that nabbed his attention, that he needed someone to confide in, someone he could trust. Shouldn't that be... any Konoha ninja...? Well, perhaps Salzem had known him a little longer than the others and had gone through their chuunin exams together but certainly he could trust someone like Risako or... Draconis (Kage knows where he is), someone else who had come with them to suna... However, the lycan didn't protest. It wouldn't be right to turn down a friend in need, especially when his keep dying.

Salzem stared at the aburame blankly as he began speaking, the beginning of his speech completely lost on him. Take over for him... what did that mean? Look after his family? His children...? His WIFE? Was Yen asking him to be some kind of god-father or something? Suffice it to say, he was nothing less than confused, that all clearing only when the aburame began speaking plainly. Yen mentioned that a friend of his went missing, and that he felt a sense of dread washing over him. He mentioned Kumogakure, how he couldn't help but think on what Kasai had said before he died, that there was some kind of demon there, that he couldn't bare losing any more of their allies. He said that he had done something to himself, that he needed Salzem's help, all of this information making the Lycan's head spin. Yen spoke fast, calmly, trying to get all of this nonspecific information out there as if he would understand it as it was presented.

"Woah, woah!" Salzem interrupted, holding a hand up to stop the aburame before he took this any further. "Lets take this one step at a time. What did you DO to yourself?" Salzem stared at Yen, probing him for any obvious signs of tampering.... There was none that he could see...

yen eye got serious as he glanced at salzem for interrupting him. yet it was a split second as he eased up and spoke. plain and simple. 

"every art has a connection. A beginning within the origin of many things, a balancing force force. and a end. where in the end the very creation is destroyed. that is only one way to look at things. sometimes you run into the balancing force here and run into unusual things. still to a mortal. there is a cost sal. when i designed that world something changed in me. i looked to expand upon it, but in exchange my chakra control even myself. i cannot manintain such techniques for that long, and they continuously get more and more taxing.... but i fear that in the end my control may cause something terrible to happen. im  confident that no matter what that you can learn the secret and trust my words. i cannot see you guys the same way. im much too slow, but i need you to be my eyes when in battle. and protect me if i preform that technique again. it will ease my soul i have someone to protect me in the event of the wars that may come."

yen spoke as he sighed quietly.

"even with yn and yang on my side im alone with the very forces that can shred a man and simply create the imagination. can you imagine controling such a spectrum?."

Salzem listened to Yen's explanation of what he did, even though he didn't fully understand. What he got was that he had created a very powerful technique, one that tore at his very body. It had ENORMOUS power, power enough that the recoil took its toll on his chakra. He looked at Yensung with... not exactly critism, but disbelief that he would persue this technique after he discovered it could tear it apart, refining it to a point at the cost of his fingers (metaphorically). He mentioned that he couldn't see people the way Salzem did, that he was far too slow. He needed Salzem to be his eyes when they fought and to protect him while he cast this self-sacrificing technique, that it would ease his soul to know that someone had his back.

Unfortunately, you may not have a soul if you use this technique again. Salzem thought to himself, matching Yen's serious gaze with his own, his eyes saying enough for the Aburame to catch on.

When he asked if Salzem knew what it felt like to control something like this, the lycan merely shook his head, gazing up at the stars.

"I don't even know what it's like to effectively play an instrument, Yen, let alone controlling that kind of power. Something like that, that takes a piece away from you every time you use it, a piece that you aren't able to get back... Maybe you should leave that stuff well enough alone." The lycan crossed his arms. "Eventually, if what you're saying is true, that technique WILL kill you. One day, it will be too much, is ability stealing too many pieces of you and you'll collapse... Not me nor the experts in the hospital will be able to heal you. I know the ninja life isn't one a person gets to live long, but at least you should try." Salzem sighed lightly, exasperated with this one issue when there was so many more to go.

"People can't be demons, Yen..." Salzem noted, looking him dead in the eye. "Duality in us exist for a reason. Whatever that guy in Kumo is doing, whatever his motives, it's surely far more complex than a sinister craving for pain and suffering. The people wouldn't stand for it, oppressed or not." His heart ached as he thought about Kasai... about the kid that had visions of the fire-man... both dead... He felt the need to cry well up in his chest but somehow it didn't make it to his face.

Yen shook his head and smiled. "My freind the art will. No matter how i go my body is merely a reflection of my soul. Durible due to spirit, and willingness to sacrifice what needed to be sacrificed. In order to protect whats needed. Once you taste power it changes the soul. You should understand that better than anyone, and know the reprocutions. I just accepted that in time when i develop my skills.... know that there is a cost to be paid. That technique i showed you to talk to you. I nearly went insane my freind, 
.Three months of nearly going into comas.... practicing on a shadow clone. Learning each weakness...  none stop. My thought process is always going, learning every weakness i have and turning it to my strength."


Yen paused and sighed as he smiled at sal he was one to get the picture eventually  as it was not easy to grasp. In time he learmed to accept his fate as it was to be written. To come to terms before the end was a ninjas duty. 

End game never was easy.


Yen thought as he continued speaking.


"We cannot judge a man to be demon yes, but also can you explain the heart and soul of a killer sal? Monsters and demons hold the same stigma. They are willing to slay millions for their goal. Despite their skin and the same heart."

Salzem let out an exasperated breath as Yen turned his analysis on him, asking how he explained the heart of a killer. Despite his erge to immediately respond with something simple, to say that's jus they way things were, the lycan kept his mouth shut and just silently thought for a moment... actually thought for a good couple of seconds on what his response would be.

"You're a killer, Yen. I'm a killer. Everyone that wears a headband is or will be one. A guy willing to kill millions to achieve a goal is the same as a guy willing to kill thousands, kill hundreds, kill only tens of people and so on because what they have in mind calls for it. In war, a good leader will do anything for his people, even if that means his are the only ones left. We have no idea what's really going on back there. All we know is that people are dying and that two people see the place in a negative light. I'm not saying a don't trust Kasai or Dachi, that.... kid, but that's not enough to decisively say that he's a demon."

Salzem paused, wondering if he actually believed what he was saying.

"For example... If I could bring back my friends... If I had the opportunity to let them live again, to let me see them one last time and not just their headstones, I WOULD kill anyone that got between me and that goal. Whether that be one man or twenty. Does that make a bad guy...? Or just desperate and determined...? Would I be hated or pitied? That's the real difference between a monster and a man I think... Its so easy to say 'he's evil' because of something he did... what he keeps doing... But who are you to decide, he who sees only the surface?" Salzem thought back to the guy that came out of nowhere and killed Isshin, then took off with his body the way he had. He had always wondered if that guy killed his best friend out of spite, out of lust for his eyes, out of anger or pain... Gradually, his mission of vengeance for this man became one of discovery to find out "why" and further still, evolved to the point that he believed that maybe... he didn't mean to do it...

"There's no such things as demons..." He muttered, the words surprisingly hard to get out of his mouth. "Beings of pure evil don't exist..."

Sal spoke and yen chuckled internally as he listend to sal. He was correct yet again and it made all the more sense.  For once sal said something that actually made yen think 

If there wasnt pure evil then why are there good people.


Yen went silent for a few moments and gazed at the moon quietly. His single eye scanning the heavens as if for an awnser to the very question that eluded him. 

What is it then that drives one village to go so far and go to lengths to slay and murder without restraint... perhaps...


"Each person has their own version for good, and evil. What is good in the eyes of one. May be evil to the many. A nations actions may be justified by its own standards and means.. that does not justify its reasons for the others.  You neednt return the life of the dead. The conciquences are too vast and the uncertaincy is too many. It is why we grasp onto memories and the very notion of an afterlife. Because life of lies. Its the ultimate illusion. To delude ones actions, a peoples actions. Against the widely supported normal. Perhaps sal you are correct in your assesment. But the clock has not stopped. So now i request once more. If i grasp a killers mindset, would you protect me as an ally when needed. Will you be my sheild and i be your sheild?  I dont know what will come in the comming days, weeks, or years, but i know that no matter what if in peril i would protect you... but will you do the same? You whom the few who understand my methods and ways. Also know of my weakness."

Yen would finish looking at sal with a exhuasted face.

"I will have to return back to my warrior self at some time... but i dont want to"