Unseen: A Threaded Tale — Act III

One week prior to the events of Act II.

Gangetsu Maeda sat in the dark stone room, illuminated by nothing but the fireplace at the distant corner. In front of him lay a man in chains, heavy thick chains which robbed individuals of the will to move. Robbed them of their fight, of their spunk. Gangetsu didn't like individuals with fire, he liked measured, submissive traits in those he conquered. He relaxed in his chair before he spoke.

"So tell me foreigner," Gangetsu started. The man in front of him raised his head, but the fireplace illuminated nothing much, except for his brilliant blue eyes. Gangetsu met the bright blue glow head on. "What madness drove you to mention such...cursed names in my village?"

The man was quiet. Gangetsu remained emotionless. "It is considered impolite to ignore questions posed to you by your host."

The man managed a chuckle. "Host? I'm under the impression that you're my captor."

"They are one and the same thing. Why did you ask of the Wrath and the Ripper?"

The man paused for a moment. "I need...information on them. They may have something to do with the disappearance of someone important to me."

"Disappearance..." Gangetsu trailed off. "I know all about you now...Eiji Kanata. Your family members, your qualification, your notable experiences as a shinobi...the nature releases you employ. My feelers stretch far and wide so with my knowledge, I just can't fathom why someone like you, blessed with all this comfort...blessed with no history of crime or nefarious deeds...would have a disappearance connected to those two...monsters." Gangetsu slyly stated.

Eiji did not respond. Gangetsu frowned.

"I'm always prepared for uncooperative individuals, usually because I have the time to do so. But let me be honest dear Eiji, your appearance is both of fortune and misfortune for me. For years I have relentlessly hunted for information on my two greatest enemies, these monsters you too are searching for. And this crucial stage close to my victory, I don't have the time to be treated to you holding information from me." Gangetsu said calmly. He stood up, allowing Eiji to catch a glimpse of his full, hulking figure. Stepping out of the shadows and into the light of the fireplace, he held a glass of red liquid to Eiji's lips.

"Drink, dear Eiji. As a host it is my duty to keep you healthy for the period of your incarceration."

Eiji moved close and took a large sip. The liquid tasted bitter, but Eiji gulped it down anyway. Gangetsu watched him with the mildest semblance of a smirk, before he placed the empty glass on the table, silently striding back to his seat where he melted back into the shadows. Eiji felt a slight dizzy feeling creep in as the fireplace began to swirl.

"What was that...the drink?" He asked.

Gangetsu remained quiet for ten seconds or so before answering. A smile on his face which Eiji would not be able to see behind the shroud of the shadows. "Truth serum, a speciality we've been concocting to great success since the Fourth Shinobi War."

Eiji felt a shiver down his spine. "Why? But what do I know? I'd have told you anything without this anyway—"

"Enough," Gangetsu stated, his voice firm and unshakeable. "You would have told me what you saw fit. I demand nothing less than the absolute truth, and that is something that you, a man with a family would hesitate to deliver me, a warlord with a reputation of filth and deceit. So now, only I will ask the questions, and you will answer me."

"...yes...sir," Eiji said, feeling his will slowly getting overridden by the effects of the serum.

"Good," Gangetsu stated, voice reverting to a more docile state. "Twenty-two years ago your village was attacked by...Takigakure separatists in an attempted Coup d'Etat, led by two monstrous creatures was it not? I want you to describe specifically those two creatures in every detail you know, as your people chronicled to you, or as you witnessed."

Eiji recounted it all in exact detail as he had heard from survivors of the attacks. The first monster that had stayed in the courtyard, attacking the Elite Forces of Takigakure with its thousands of threads as it tore to them like paper. A second beast with unparalleled defensive capabilities tearing through the Takigakure Main Headquarters, slaughtering most of the defenders of the building before both were encountered and killed by Jouman Gankai.

"As I've heard before in exact detail, yes," Gangetsu whispered. "When you first arrived, you told a bartender that you were rediscovering your roots. Explain. Spare me no detail."

And Eiji again followed subserviently. Explaining how he believed his brother wasn't dead...

But Gangetsu was almost not listening. For many years he had known this. The Wrath had killed his son, and the Wrath had died mysteriously fifteen years earlier. Gangetsu hadn't showed a shred of emotion that day but the death of his son had crushed him in every way possible. A defeat that his immortality and supreme wealth as well as might could not overcome. A hole in his heart that even his burning rage couldn't fill up. The emptiness of loss. Gangetsu knew vengeance would never be able to fill that hole but vengeance was necessary anyway. It was how Gangetsu dealt with his enemies, as this was one attack on him that even his enemies knew he hadn't repaid in kind. It was weakness, both perceived and actual. A comprehensive and stunning defeat every day he lived.

Gangetsu had tried so hard to find out the identity of the Wrath. For all the creature's power and brutality, it operated under strategy, attacked key areas, eliminated resources and wielded tactics. It wasn't as divine as his men gave it credit for: the Wrath and his ally the Ripper were both probably super powered shinobi who had decided to foil his livelihood. They were just fearsomely mighty living beings. Living beings had bonds, or at least that's what Gangetsu hoped the Wrath would have; even if it defied logic. If not, Gangetsu would have raided the home village of the Wrath and left it in flames, before blasting his identity to the public.

The consequences of defying the Lord of Sunagakure's Underworld.

But his attempts had been met with immaculately burned paper trails, covered tracks, ghost operatives and proxies. Powerful individuals stood behind the Wrath, and they kept the creature's legend as a demonic entity alive. In other words, Gangetsu had proof that the Great Shinobi Nations supported these two individuals logistically. Their intelligence networks provided the duo the Intel needed to go with their brute power, as they decimated numerous criminal organisations on behalf of the Five Nations.

Gangetsu's son had been a member of the rising syndicate, the Sons of Freedom. An organisation Gangetsu had funded, which would secretly infiltrate the Great Nations and place them under the power of organised criminal syndicates. The Coup d'Etat as Eiji spoke of here, had never been a coup. Someone had found the Sons of Freedom out and eliminated them all in one night in Takigakure. The night two creatures had shown up in the village. The day that marked the killings of numerous members of the Sons of Freedom at the hands of the Wrath and Ripper. He had always known that the two monsters had escaped after being beaten back by Gankai, leader of Takigakure. Takigakure had always been the starting point of this mess. But there had been never anything to go on beyond that. They escaped, Gankai rose to power, the elimination of the Sons of Freedom continued in different regions, and new individuals rose to power in other states.

When a man from Takigakure started to hunt down leads on the Wrath and Ripper, it was a red flag for Gangetsu. He mobilised his forces and apprehended the man. It was as if the prime lead he had been waiting a decade and a half for had finally revealed itself. But then suddenly, a light shone in his mind. This man, captured for his potential wealth of information as a civilian, had said something else. He believed his brother was not dead. He believed his brother was linked to the Wrath.

"Your brother," Gangetsu growled as he stood upright. The chair flew backwards. "Why do you suspect he didn't die?!"

Eiji paused, shocked by his tone. "His...remains. Teeth. His official cause of death was vaporisation in an explosion...but I had a quick glance at his teeth and they were pristine, with only blood on them."

"And that's all?!"

"...eyewitnesses has reported seeing a masked individual with Kenta's Fūma Shuriken at various locations throughout the fight...or at least seeing someone who resembled him. They never found his weapon...said it might have been destroyed in the fight. He should have been killed...at the start of the battle...but...many...inconsistencies—"

It was all beginning to fit in now, these unrelated bits of seemingly random information. Information unreliable and choppy but still Gangetsu knew he had hit the jackpot. The Wrath had been a skilled wielder of the Fūma Shuriken, unparalleled it was said, had been his abilities with the gigantic weapon. This Kenta Kanata seemed to have wielded one as well, which had disappeared. A suspicious link was showing now, an age old mystery about to be resolved.

"And why did it take you this long to seek this trail of his? Why did you not seek him out earlier, if your suspicions were true?"

Eiji frowned. "I...was sure that it was all my imagination...but the clues began to lead away...lead here...to the monsters that attacked us..."

Gangetsu trembled and stormed out of the room, slamming the door behind him. Outside, stood a spy of his, one of those who maintained his network around Takigakure.

"Tell me now," Gangetsu hissed. "The killings of the Sons of Freedom began in Takigakure, did it not?"

"Yes," the spy agreed.

"You said the room was ransacked, no notes, no dossiers, no documents."

"Affirmative."

"How did we not know about this boy, Kanata Kenta?!"

"There are some records redacted in Takigakure, a lot on the Kanata family as well. His mother was a pioneer in the programme that led to the initial Jinchūriki Programme, she was also a defector, reportedly trying to bring down the regime with underhanded methods for a period. Gankai redacted those numerous files when he entered office, as she was absolved of her responsibility and declared a hero against a corrupt regime. The Kanata family is protected just like any other families involved in internal or politically sensitive affairs."

"AURRRGGHHH!" Gangetsu yelled in rage. He smashed his elbow into the stone walls beside him, creating a massive crater. The spy backed away in fear, a slight tremble in his knees.

"I paid you a fortune, to get ahead me of my surroundings," Gangetsu growled, his shadow looming in the stone corridor. He tensed, growing to full height, dwarfing the spy. "For years I have laboured with the death of my son, searching for the identity of the beast who took him from me. To take from it, everything. Eiji Kanata and Kenta Kanata are the sons of this defector Kanata woman. She attempted to undo everything she had pioneered out of guilt. And eventually her intentions come to fruition. Ironically her son dies in circumstances that attract the suspicion of his brother, the very night the entire Jinchūriki Programme is sabotaged."

Gangetsu grit his teeth and marched backwards to the room, blasting the door open. The stone encased room filled with light, as Eiji looked away, blinded by the brightness.

"Kenta Kanata, how was he like before his death?" Gangetsu asked, his silhouette blocking some of the light.

"Strange...a year before he died, he became insanely strong. Went for these suspicious training sessions and got jumpy when I asked him about them...always seemed fishy, his coverup stories. He became a Jōnin a month or so before he died...I can't remember exactly when, but it was close to his death."

Gangetsu turned behind to the spy. "You told me the attack took place on a tactically sound day didn't you?"

The spy nodded. "Yes m'lord, it happened on a night where most of Takigakure's forces were stationed on foreign duties. It was probably due to the intelligence afforded to the Wrath and Ripper—"

"Exactly," Gangetsu stated as his face contorted into twisted, unshackled rage, as he detected an incomprehensible weakness in his spymaster—the man chosen to be smarter than Gangetsu in order to eternally keep him ahead. "But you fail to grasp one thing. The intelligence they used wasn't gained by foreign intel. When I was a Jōnin of Sunagakure, I had access to the shift timetables of village security. Would I be correct if I said all Jōnin from all the villages have access to postings and troop stationing?"

"You would be, Lord Maeda." The spy stated, knowing fully well that Gangetsu had already worked it out.

"Which means, the intelligence granted to the Wrath and Ripper could have resulted...from a certain Jōnin just knowing the shifts...and planning an attack...on the day Takigakure's greatest fighters were not home. Gankai moved quickly to protect this family because they had something to hide—no, everything to hide. Gankai was their first great ally. Which means...the first attack was masterminded by none other...than the son of the defector." Gangetsu concluded, before turning back to Eiji.

"Answer these questions with only one word, yes or no! Were you involved with the Wrath? Were you involved with the activities of your mother as a fighter against the establishment? Do you know of the Sons of Freedom?"

"No...no...no..."

Gangetsu turned back to his spymaster. "Who were the first villages Gankai enforced his diplomatic relationships with?"

"Konohagakure and Ryuseigakure. He opened up multilateral close ties with the Five Great Nations for trade about a year after that, followed by his smaller neighbours. That's how he turned Takigakure into a wealthy superpower, together with Ryuseigakure's technology."

Gangetsu's eyes narrowed. "Who was Konohagakure's diplomatic emissary at that time? Was it..."

"Lord Densetsu Uchiha."

Gangetsu growled like a wild dog. "Yes...it was him wasn't it? The Great Dragon of Konoha...so you were the faceless adversary that kept the Wrath from me, I could have sworn the stench of vigilante havoc seems to always emanate from you," he muttered, a rabid rage building, suppressed by immediate glee. It made perfect sense that he had never been able to discover the creature's identity until this moment: he had been deterred by the formidable resources wielded by a champion of the fight against the underworld all along.

Gangetsu breathed deeply and recollected his calm. "I want the number of agents in Takigakure to be doubled. I want more information on Gankai, his past engagements, his bodyguards. I want as much as I can on his abilities and his interests. I need leverage. Accelerate our plans to move into Takigakure, they've been in the works for too long. It'll register well for our finances to dominate that village as soon as possible. Kusagakure can wait, this comes first. If we want to take Takigakure, Gankai must eventually be dealt with. If we want to get Kanata's family, we have to immediately get Gankai out of the way."

"But m'lord, Gankai is a mighty foe. Possibly a terrible opponent even for someone of your—"

"You think I rate Gankai poorly? What am I, a child born yesterday? But do you think we will be able to take down Takigakure as long as he commands their defences? And even if we do win, we will lose more than we stand to gain. If we are to move into Takigakure he must first be dealt with."

"Yes my lord."

Gangetsu turned away and walked into the room, towards Eiji. The prisoner looked up at him, eyes filled with panic after all he had heard between Gangetsu and the spymaster. A speechless silence emanating from horror, confusion and delirium.

"Your brother, was the Wrath, the one I've looked for all these years," Gangetsu stated softly. As Eiji weakly shook his head in refusal, Gangetsu bent over and eyed him carefully before speaking. "Your brother, killed my son and slaughtered him. Took his honour, and mine with it. I have searched numerous countries for information, killed numerous individuals for leads. I have fought faceless adversaries and hunted nameless men, all for this knowledge. Gaps that you have filled for me in your...desperate search. Your brother began a war that he died before completing, and that I will finish. I will invade your home and conquer your people, and slaughter your family before you. And then, I will kill you."

Gangetsu straightened up and paused, rubbing his hands together. A thought creeped into his mind with delay. One last itch was yet to be scratched, a burning question he yearned to ask out of hope that he could still exact his revenge upon the deceased. "Did Kenta have...a son?"

Eiji's eyes reddened in anger as he struggled against his restraints. Forced by the serum, he replied. "Yes, he does."

Gangetsu grinned wide eyes fixed on the stone floor, he could barely contain the ballooning feeling of his heart as glee overtook him. "Then I will do unto him, what was done unto me." With that he turned and briskly marched out of the room, leaving Eiji to succumb weakly to the effects of the powerful serum, drained and unable to even move or express his anger before slipping out of consciousness in utter exhaustion.

As he passed the spymaster along the corridor, Gangetsu paused. He placed his large, rough palm on the slender man's shoulder. "I placed you in your position out of extreme regard and respect for your exploits in the shadows," Gangetsu whispered softly, his fingers tensing. The man winced as Gangetsu massaged his shoulders with ill will. The fingers stopped their caressing and the man looked up to find a cold glare through Gangetsu's sunken eye sockets. "You've failed me here, and I won't tolerate this inexcusable form of weakness from you again. You're only remaining at your post because I still believe in your abilities...but fail me again and a mere demotion is out of the question." He tensed his fingers and the man stifled a howl.

"Y-yes my lord," he whimpered as Gangetsu's palm relaxed.

The door slammed shut shortly after the sound of Gangetsu's heavy footsteps disappeared, leaving the corridor, room, Eiji and spymaster in complete silence.