Marching back, piece by piece

Attached to the hind leg of a professionally trained raccoon, a letter had been sent to the village that held many of the strong, presumably. Their walls remained tall and high, presumably. Once the letter had been ripped off from the hind leg of the creature and transported through the village with a male calling for the name that was on the front of the letter in crimson lettering, 'Shinji; Former Tenkage'.

Inside of the letter, when opened, would reveal bloody splotches on the dirty parchment due to the severed finger inside as well as the thread of the necklace now also being bloodied, tainting it's black colour. In the letter, it reads:

"Shinji Uzumaki; Forever Former Tenkage.


On your next attempt to slaughter your village, send someone more qualified. Only seven civilians died this time.
Don't fret, old boy, I handled the subject and he decided he wished to send the news to you himself,
so, courtesy of Youka, please accept humbly his finger, he resisted valiantly, to no avail.
Please, Former Tenkage, return to my village with open arms.
We shall settle this debate without the interference of missing shinobi, or any shinobi for that matter.
Come, friend, and allow us to finish the spar where I hastily granted you life.



Yours truly,
                Xyxer Gyojin, Wrath of Tengakure."

No post on Sunday! Shame it was not Sunday, Shinji was combing through his mail when he happened upon a peculiar letter. Sighing to himself the Uzumaki scion grabbed a letter opener and slid it quickly through the top releasing a foul smell. Fanning away the foul air halfheartedly he dumped out the contents of the letter on the table he now sat at.

A finger, cool.

A nifty necklace, interesting.

Ah, and hardly legible handwriting shame coupled with blood. People really needed to step up their threats. Perusing the latter lazily Shinji was able to decipher the letter after considerable effort. So, Xyxer was alive? Huh, go figure. Guess treachery did pay off in the end.

Inspecting the necklace and finger closer, he came too the conclusion that they belonged to Youka-the odd drifter he may have or may not have sent to 'check' on Xyxer. He needed to think on all this. It did confirm that Tengakure had truly fallen. Plus, it indicated that Xyxer no doubt had a thing about lopping off appendages, which probably correlated to his unfortunate trauma induced by the pair of missing-nin. This changed everything, absolutely everything. Sadly, diplomacy was now off the table.