Cursed Saint

9 - Nature's Wonders

Is he okay? The voice was female and familiar, but they seemed to be on the edge of Ryu's conscious, just evading his grasp.

Yeah, he's fine. He just overdid it, that's all. Another familiar voice, this one male.

Just had to be the hero, didn't he? This was another female voice, a bit more irritable and more familiar than the first.

Hey, he saved our butts back there with that blast thing! Another male among the group.

This is such a-

Before Ryu could hear another word, he seemed to be dragged into complete darkness, no sound getting through to him. Despite his best attempts, he couldn't seem to escape it. At times he thought he heard more voices, but he couldn't be sure.

His body felt heavy, weighed down as if his bones had become lead. At the same time the peace almost felt good and welcome. The memory of what had caused him to fall into this darkness was fuzzy, most likely because of his already confused state.

It felt as if he drifted there for only minutes yet for weeks at the same time. As time passed, though, his condition began to improve. The weight began to fade, energy spread through him, and the fog began to clear. There were even moments he would escape the darkness and see quick flashes.

One time he was in a wooden room by himself, a mattress underneath him and covers warming him. The room was mostly bare except for a dresser beside him and another bed on the other side of the room. It was rumpled, as if it had been slept on, but as of then it was unoccupied. Light shone in from somewhere behind him, most likely a window.

Another time he broke through, he wasn't in the room by himself. He was still in the room, but it had darkened considerably. Sitting in the bed across from him was a balled up figure with long blond hair in a pony tail, their body shaking as sobs escaped them.

"Ino?" Ryu managed to whisper. He was surprised he'd been able to speak, even if it shouldn't have been audible. Despite this, the young girl raised her head to look at him, her pale green eyes widening in shock.

"Asuma, Ryu's awake!" she called, rubbing at her eyes. Unlike before, when she'd instantly looked at him, she refused to even glance in his direction.

Ryu heard someone walking before he was dragged back under the dark.

There were a few other times he woke up as well, and each time he saw someone new beside of him. One time it was Asuma, leaning by what he could only guess was a window and blowing out smoke. Another time Ino was back, staring off into the distance as if she was lost to the world. 

The final time he remembered was Shikamaru and Chouji, the chubby Akimichi complaining about something that Ryu didn't quite catch before he drifted back into sleep. This time, however, he did not return to the darkness. Instead he was surrounded by black and white energy, swirling around him like a tornado of color. He glared into the energy, searching it for anything that might give him a sign of what was going on.

Against his will, his feet began to move forward. He didn't think too much about it. After all, it was just a dream. But if that was so, why did he seem to have so much control over his own thoughts?

The farther he walked, the less white there seemed to be mixed in with the black. It was as if it was eating away at it, even sucking away at Ryu's own pure thoughts and feelings. He panicked slightly when he felt the dark energy raise, but it wasn't even his. Urgently reminding himself that it was just a dream, Ryu quickly tried to calm down.

He came to an abrupt stop as he finally saw what he was walking toward. What he had before only thought was more black overcoming the white he now saw as a huge aura of darkness as large as the Leaf. Within the aura was a humanoid outline, though whether or not that was what it was Ryu wasn't sure. He did know this, though -whoever or whatever was within it was walking toward him.