The masked and hooded figure walked slowly down the single passage leading into what was now Sunagakure. To either side rose enormous, insurmountable cliff faces. The masked figure paid those no heed, however. It walked in the very middle, with a slow and measured pace, a relaxed left hand resting upon the hilt of a katana sheathed beneath the black, short, sleeveless robe the figure wore. In the boiling sun of the Wind Country, one could only guess at how hot the man behind the mask was.
He had walked this passage many times in the past - a very long time ago, this was true, but he had walked this passage much. The passage had not changed in the fifty or so years since he had last been here, but what was beyond had. Now there was a large village where once there had been a rather small settlement, the compound of the Suna Clan, a little-known clan which had emerged from the desert and so took on the name of the sand.
He stopped suddenly, standing in place. Three men appeared in a puff of smoke, surrounding the figure. There were a few moments of quiet as the new arrivals inspected the stranger. They had never seen him before, and he had some guts walking through in the middle of the day before the eyes of the guards. It was clear he was not attempting to hide, or if he was, then he was beyond incompetent.
'Reveal your identity and purpose,' the leading shinobi demanded. He stood right before him, the other two standing to the stranger's left and right, facing him and at the ready should he attempt anything.
'I am merely visiting family,' the voice which returned was rather deep, almost threatening, but the rather compliant and unassuming response gave no suggestion of a threat.
'Hmm, where have you come from? Identify yourself,' the shinobi narrowed his eyes, attempting to find a reason to suspect the man standing before him - his style of dress alone warranted suspicion. He could easily be an enemy spy, and given Sunagakure's dismal state, it could hardly bear to have its seeming strength compromised with enemy intel on its current state of weakness.
'I am a mere traveling wanderer who has found his way back to where he first began. When I set off, it was from here that I set off, and to this place have I returned,' the shinobi's narrowed eyes rose quizzically. Was he trying to confuse him with riddles and wordplay? Looking to the others, he waved the man along.
'Ok, off you go,' the black-clad and masked figure walked on and the three shinobi watched him until he was out of hearing range, 'watch him.'
The two shinobi to either side of him nodded before disappearing in a puff of smoke. He would be damned if he allowed an enemy spy to slip him by!
***
Daichi stood at the door of the house. What had brought him here, he did not know - he was on a search for his son, after all, not taking a walk down the road of memories. But he had found himself here, outside that door from oh so long ago - fifty three years, in fact. He wondered if she and her children were still here - how old had she been back then? Thirty? It was rather strange seeing how the settlement had changed and grown, and yet this house, and this very door, had remained the same.
He raised his hand to the door and knocked. There was silence. He knocked again.
'I am coming! Can't you be patient! Give an old woman some time!' came the irritated, high-pitched response. Well, seemed like the old crone was alive. Pity...
The door swung slowly open and a grumpy old face looked him up and down.
'What are you doing with that thing on your face?' she snapped, 'take it off so I can see who you are!' Daichi considered, for a few moments, a series of very painful things he could potentially do to her but thought better of it. He was being watched after all, no need to attract more attention than he already had. He lifted a hand to his mask and removed it, revealing the middle-aged face below, though the hair was as white as it had always been. The old woman squinted and looked at him more closely, leaning in on her cane and rising on her tiptoes. Her mouth opened slightly and her eyes widened.
'You...' she whispered, 'I...I've never seen you in my life! Who in the world are you?' he stood there looking at her, cocking his head to the left and smiling ever so slightly.
'Do you forget me, sister of my mother? I who grew under your roof until the torment drove me away?' her eyes narrowed and she backed away.
'Ah...
you,' her voice was full of venom. She turned away and signaled for him to come in, 'close the door behind you.'
Complying, he stepped in and closed the door, following his aunt into the sitting room where she provided him with some water. Fifty three years later - what was she now? Eighty five? Ninety? Certainly had the will to stay alive, that was for certain.
It was in that moment that he realised what he had come here for. It was not out of a nostalgia for any golden past or love or even the feeling that she was family. He merely wanted to know something.
'So, what brings you here? How long has it been? Forty years?' she asked as she sat across the table, a cup of something warm in her hands. She had not provided him with anything after the water - not that he wanted anything from her but that one, little thing.
'Fifty three years,' he corrected her,
'I have come with a request. I wish for you to tell me something, for you are the only one with who can answer me,' he said. Realising that he was depending on her for something, she smiled slyly and looked away, playing hard to get. Daichi had no time for her games.
'Tell me where the location of the compound is,' she immediately understood what he said for her head turned towards him and confusion lit up her face.
'The compound? But...why?' Daichi's face remained emotionless.
'That is not for you to know, you simply need to provide me with the information I require and have a right to,' his voice was as cold as he could make it. It irked him greatly having to ask this woman for something - he was not even asking her where her children were, so little did he want to know. He would be forgetting her once more the moment he turned away from her after all. She sat there looking at him, her eyes moving from his face to the mask and scouring his black garb.
'You are that strange traveling shinobi, are you not? The one who became famed during the war. Black garb, horned mask, you are he, no?' Daichi gave a long irritated sigh. What was the point of her questioning? Nevertheless, he obliged her and nodded in the affirmative.
'Very well, I will tell you where it is, but you must do something for me first...'
***
'A black-garbed man?' the man asked, frowning slightly.
'Yes, and he was wearing a horned mask. Didn't seem suspicious but told Uchimaru and Sho to keep an eye on him,' the shinobi who had stopped Daichi earlier was stood before another man, who sat behind a desk. The man had long red hair which rested on the shoulders of his white kimono, and his green eyes were narrowed as he thought.
'Did he tell you his name?' the red-haired man asked, at which the other shook his head.
'Why, Kanzo-sama? Do you know him?' Kanzo got up from his seat and turned around, staring out the window behind him. It could not be anyone other than
him.
'I want him. Bring him here. If he refuses, use whatever force you can - don't be afraid to hold back, he will survive. Is that clear, is that clear Hotaka?' the shinobi known as Hotaka bowed.
'It shall be done, Kanzo-sama,' he said before disappearing in a puff of smoke. Kanzo stood staring out of the window, foggy-eyed. He had faced off against the infamous black-clad ninja, some knew him as The Horned One, but here in Sunagakure he was known by a very different name, for they had seen his wings.
He of the Wings.
